The recent Bir Zeit University survey of the Palestinians of Gaza and Judea and Samaria should be a wake-up call for Israel and its allies. It shows a robust 75% percent support for Hamas and October 7 among the Palestinians living in areas of Judea and Samaria controlled by the Palestinian Authority (PA).
How then, can the PA be considered responsible leadership for the “day after” in Gaza?
How can our politicians’ memories be so short that they would even consider allowing the PA – in its current configuration – to regain control of Gaza? For those who don’t remember, the PA was in charge of Gaza until 2007, until its representatives and members were murdered by their Hamas brothers, thrown from the rooftops of Gaza, and expelled in disgrace. Through the PA, Fatah rules Judea and Samaria today.
Why would repeating the same mistake yield a different result?
YEARS AGO, Fatah, the party of PLO chairman Yasser Arafat (also the first president of the PA, succeeded by Mahmoud Abbas, whom he groomed) set up a “state within a state” in Jordan with 15,000 fighters. Its aim was to overthrow the Hashemite Kingdom and establish a Palestinian state in Jordan. The PLO was the umbrella organization for Fatah, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), as well as supported by the Syrian military.
In 1970, in what became known as Black September, King Hussein of Jordan declared war on the Jordanian Palestinians, destroying the terrorist infrastructure, including the homes of those who wanted to overthrow the king’s rule.
Hindsight teaches us out that King Hussein knew exactly how to “speak the language” of these terror organizations. Nonetheless it has taken us Israelis 75 years to realize that we too, had to learn to “speak” their “language.” Anyone who mistakenly believes that it is possible to separate Hamas in Gaza from Hamas in Judea and Samaria simply does not understand where we live or what our enemy really thinks of us. The results of the Bir Zeit survey should go some way toward enlightening them. Its 75% support for Hamas is divided between 59% who fully justify the October 7 massacres and 16% who support it “to a certain extent.” The survey reveals even more support for October 7 in territories ruled by the PA than in Gaza, thus testifying to thousands of supporters of Hamas’ murderous ideology.
Understanding the Palestinian Conflict
Israel’s governments have for generations failed to understand that whatever the size of the funds allocated to these murderers, no amount of money and no promises of a state will ever satisfy them.
The time has finally come to understand that for them, this is not a war over territory, it is a war of ideologies. The Palestinians will not settle for anything less than all the territories — including everything.
The textbooks in Gaza as well as in Judea and Samaria are full of lies and distortions. The poison and hatred poured into children from their infancies tragically and murderously creates another generation of young Palestinians with an infirm worldview, brainwashed into stigmatizing the Jews as Nazis.
Is there any reason not to believe the Palestinians and their leaders when they call for “Palestine from the river to the sea?” The answer is unequivocal.
If we are even to consider speaking to the Palestinians in “our language” instead of theirs, it will be when they begin changing the narrative they are teaching the next generation; when they begin raising their children with values; and when they stop turning human beings, who are born innocent, into damned terrorists.
The Palestinians have engineered the consciousness and washed the brains of their tender children for decades, turning them into robots of evil and hatred toward others and other “languages.”
WE WILL vanquish them because we have not been taught to hate; because the IDF is the most moral army in the world; and because we are a tough nation.
It is true that, as Jews, there are differences of opinion between us – as there are in any family – sometimes even major ones. Nevertheless, we have always known how to unite in times of trouble. For thousands of years, we have survived all the massacres and genocide committed against us.
We will forever reach out our hands in peace yet we will also cut off the hand of anyone who attempts to harm a single hair on our children’s heads.
What Hamas is experiencing now at the hands of the IDF is only a down payment on a long reckoning. Israel will eliminate everyone who was connected to the October 7 massacre. We have a long memory and for those who have already forgotten, let us recall that of the damned terrorists involved in the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich 1972 Olympics, not a single one was left standing.
Neither the military tunnels of Gaza nor the luxury suites in Qatar or Turkey will be safe for them or their leaders forever. Israel’s long hand will bring them to the final reckoning.
The writer is CEO of Radios 100fm, an honorary consul, deputy dean of the Diplomatic Consular Corps, and vice president of the Ambassadors Club of Israel.