Who Says Hamas Does Not Represent The Palestinians?

by Bassam Tawil, GATESTONE  •  October 23, 2023 at 5:00 am

• The Biden administration’s assertion that Hamas is an insignificant group of terrorists that does not enjoy the support of many Palestinians is not only false; it is dangerously so. This assertion contradicts the reality, which proves that Hamas actually does represent a significant portion of the Palestinians.
• This inconvenient reality is based on public opinion polls conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PSR) and the results of elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council and university student councils and professional unions. It is also based on mass demonstrations and rallies in support of Hamas before and after the October 7 carnage in which Hamas terrorists murdered more than 1,400 Israelis and wounded more than 4,000.
• The most recent PSR poll, published last month, showed that if new presidential elections were held today, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh would win 58% of the vote, while Mahmoud Abbas would only receive 37%. Hamas’s “armed struggle” (terrorism) against Israel was supported by 58% of the Palestinian public, the poll showed…
• This means that a majority of Palestinians share Hamas’s desire to eliminate Israel as expressed in the terror group’s 1988 charter. The poll also showed that 71% of the Palestinians support the formation of armed groups to murder Israelis.
• In the past few months, Hamas-affiliated students won elections at two major Palestinian universities in the West Bank.
• “The [university] elections are considered the bellwether of West Bank politics… With no general Palestinian elections on the horizon, student polls are seen as a ‘test for measuring public opinion’…” — Middle East Eye, May 25, 2023.
• In 2021, Abbas cancelled elections he had called for the Palestinian Authority presidency and parliament after realizing that his Fatah faction was poised to lose to Hamas, as took place in the 2006 parliamentary election.
• If, according to Biden and Blinken, Hamas does not represent the Palestinians, how do they explain the fact that… hundreds of Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip joined the Hamas terrorists who attacked the Israeli communities near the border with the Gaza Strip?
• The Biden administration is presenting a false claim according to which most Palestinians are opposed to Hamas and that Abbas’s Palestinian Authority, which rewards terrorists who murder Jews with monthly stipends, is a “peace partner” for Israel. This is a complete distortion of reality and does not represent the truth.
• Recently, Abbas reminded everyone that he is an antisemite and a Holocaust denier.
• When will Biden and Blinken grasp that there is no difference between the murderous Hamas leaders and Abbas the antisemite? Surely, Biden and Blinken are aware that Abbas has not condemned the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. Abbas’s silence is a rambunctious approval of the cold-blooded massacre of hundreds upon hundreds of Israelis. Let there be no mistake about it: both Hamas and Abbas represent a majority of Palestinians whose goal is to murder Jews and destroy Israel.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has not condemned the atrocities committed by Hamas on October 7. Abbas’s silence is a rambunctious approval of the cold-blooded massacre of hundreds upon hundreds of Israelis. Let there be no mistake about it: both Hamas and Abbas represent a majority of Palestinians whose goal is to murder Jews and destroy Israel. Pictured: Abbas (right) and Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal meet on November 24, 2011 in Cairo, Egypt, in one “reconciliation” attempt. (Photo by Mohammed al-Hams/Khaled Mashaal’s Office via Getty Images)<
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In a number of statements since Hamas’s October 7 massacre in Israel, US President Joe Biden stated that Hamas does not represent all the Palestinian people. “I think Israel understands that a significant portion of Palestinian people do not share the views of Hamas and Hezbollah,” Biden said in an interview with CBS.

Biden’s claim was repeated by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who told Jordan’s King Abdullah and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. In a phone call with Abbas, Blinken “expressed continuing US support for the Palestinian people, stressing that Hamas terrorists do not represent Palestinians or their legitimate aspirations for self-determination and equal measures of dignity, freedom, security, and justice,” according to a State Department readout.

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