Americans have a thesis. In recent weeks, alongside their unprecedented backing and assistance to Israel in the campaign against Gaza, they have shared their plan with the prime minister and some of his senior ministers: After Hamas is defeated, immediately or gradually, the Good Gays from the Palestinian Authority – possibly with the help of other moderate Arab elements – will take over the reins in the Gaza Strip as well. This will come alongside a vigorous striving to implement the "two-state solution" and a far-reaching compromise that Israel will need in the Judea and Samaria sector. The Americans feel that after everything they have done for it, Israel "owes it to them." After the "stick" that the Palestinians in Gaza have rightly accepted, the time must come for the "carrot" – a Palestinian state for the other Palestinians, the "good" or the "lesser" Palestinians, in Judea and Samaria. They are willing to invest a lot of money in it. Billions.
This American naivete has many aspects and implications, which have been intertwined for many years in the endless debate inside and outside Israel between those who reject the Palestinian state and those who support it. But long before that historic debate, the American thesis suffers from a major fundamental preliminary failure. The basic assumption of the Americans that Judea and Samaria is home to "good gays" or that Hamas does not represent the majority of Palestinians – as President Biden himself says – simply does not correspond with reality.
Abbas is not the solution,
In truth, it did not correspond with reality even before the war, and it does not correspond with it even more intensely after the outbreak of the war. More than 1,000 terrorist attacks, including very serious ones, planned by Hamas and other terrorist organizations, have been thwarted by the IDF and Shin Bet in Judea and Samaria in recent years in the "good gay" districts of Jenin, Hebron, Nablus, Tulkarem, Samaria and other governorates. Dozens of them could have ended in actual massacres, though not on the scale of the massacre in the envelope. Dozens of terrorist attacks, some of them severe, have been thwarted by the IDF since the war began. 1,000 Hamas members have been arrested in Judea and Samaria in the past three weeks alone. More than 125 terrorists were killed there.
Hamas's attempt to light fires in Judea and Samaria is not proceeding on a blank slate. Since the beginning of the war, and the massacre perpetrated by the new Nazis from Hamas against the residents of the envelope, there has been an increasing number of expressions of support and solidarity among Palestinians in Judea and Samaria with the massacre and the fighting that Hamas-Gaza is waging against Israel. Support and identification come both from the leadership of Fatah, Hamas' greatest rival, and from the ground – in demonstrations, marches in support and countless expressions of solidarity on social networks.
Itamar Marcus, Photo: Oren Ben Hakon
This trend is reported by civilian bodies that monitor what is happening in the PA, from Palestinian Media Watch and the veteran Memri to the newer Jewish Voice and Bergavim in the field, alongside state monitoring bodies and assessment bodies. It corresponds to the results of dozens of opinion polls conducted even before the massacre. All of them attest to broad support, and even a majority for Hamas, among the Palestinian population in the West Bank. Mahmoud Abbas knows very well why he has been torpedoing democratic elections in the PA for many years. The chairman can clearly feel the pulse of the population, especially now, in wartime, even in his own stronghold, Ramallah.
Just a week ago, last Friday, thousands marched there in rhythmic chants, repeating with their throats snorting after the leader of the demonstration: "Whoever has a weapon / and hides it for weddings / or shoots a Jew / or gives it to Hamas." In normal times, Abu Mazen's forces would fire up such a demonstration, but not today. Also in Salfit in Samaria (three kilometers south of Ariel), not far from the Yasser Arafat Hospital, a funeral was held last Saturday in which the escorts gave rhythmic saluting to none other than Hamas spokesman Abu Obeida, who is Hadifa Kahlot, whose real name the IDF revealed only a few days ago. In As Sawiya village in Nablus, at another funeral of a local fatality, Hamas flags were waved, while the crowd roared repeatedly: "We are the people of Mohammed Deif." Last Friday marches were held in Nablus and Hebron in which PLO and Hamas flags were waved side by side.
Swastikas in Huwara
The scenes on social media are often even more difficult. Huwara's main Telegram repeatedly showed pictures of swastikas painted on walls in the village in solidarity with Hamas. Another video shows a Gazan mob stepping on the body of an IDF soldier, possibly one of the abductees, and then verifying killing by shooting him in the head. In Huwara, Birzeit and Silwad, local businesses (a pastry shop, lingerie factory and pizzeria) published pictures of their products with photographs of abductees, sometimes an old woman, sometimes a girl. On a Telegram identified as Qusra's Telegram (near Shiloh), unknown persons scattered smiling emojis about harsh photographs of the massacre in the envelope, and on Nablus Telegram, unknown persons promised to "drink the blood of the Jews and eat their skulls." "You will miss Hitler," it read, in these very words.
Thousands celebrate the massacre in Ramallah, Fatah stronghold, photo: AFP
Support for Hamas in areas designated by the Americans for a Palestinian state continues, even as rockets launched in Gaza accidentally fall on them. This happened near Ya'bad village in Jenin, and in Aida refugee camp north of Bethlehem. In both places, children, young people, women and men celebrated with fragments and fragments of rockets, in circles of joy and with slogans of incitement against Israel and support for Hamas (Documentation: Abu Ali Express channel).
And there's more: Remember the Samidoun organization, which Benny Gantz as defense minister declared a terrorist organization and outlawed it? Remember the harsh criticism he received in the United States and Europe for this step? Haaretz even wrote at the time that Samidoun was "an organization that any democratic society would be proud of." So that's it, not exactly. Samidoun, like other organizations in the "good gay" country that the Americans are counting on for the not-too-distant future, urged his supporters this week to support the Al-Aqsa Flood and Hamas' resistance (information courtesy of journalist Yishai Friedman).
Elhanan Groner, one of the founders and editors of The Jewish Voice, who, along with Regavim, gathered much of the information on the PA's conduct on the ground, was labeled by the media as "extreme right-wing" during normal times, but the level of credibility of the materials Groner and his colleagues have been publishing for many months is high. They even provided the authorities with threads, and sometimes even real incriminating material regarding severe incitement, both within the PA and among Israeli Arabs.
Bethlehem children celebrate with the remains of a rocket launched from Gaza,
Gruner is not surprised by what is happening in the PA. "Our memory is short," he says, "Palestinian policemen participated in the famous lynching of IDF soldiers in Ramallah and removed their internal organs, with exactly the same cruelty as Hamas-Gaza. The massacre of the Fogel family was also carried out by Arabs who are not from Hamas, from the village of Awarta, and so were other attacks, more or less cruel." "Set aside our positions for a moment," the Jewish Voice asks, "disconnect for a moment from your positions, and just listen to what the Palestinians in the PA are saying these days. Take their words seriously. We have already paid with enough blood for the contempt for Hamas, its words and its spokesmen."
Avraham Binyamin, director of Regavim's policy department, who took part in the collection and documentation work carried out by the Jewish Voice, also suggests not to be under illusions and not to assume that the PA is different in its goals from Hamas. Benjamin mentions the Palestinian education system, which "has been pouring incitement content for years that gives rise to murderers, and which teaches them to hate and see the Jew as subhuman." Fatah terrorists, he reveals, participated in the massacre and looting. Alongside Gruner, he reveals photographs of Fatah symbols on the clothes of some of the massacres in the Gaza envelope (Fatah-Gaza, a faction that opposes Mahmoud Abbas).
"We taught them a lesson in Gaza"
Even more diverse materials are currently being collected by Palestinian Media Watch researchers, headed by Dr. Itamar Marcus. These show that it is not only the street in Judea and Samaria that supports Hamas and identifies with the massacre. Expressions of support and solidarity are also recorded in the Fatah leadership, and throughout the leadership of the organization, which is headed, as is known, by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. Even in the close circle of the chairman – who until this moment had not condemned the massacre in the Gaza Strip, and who wriggles around messages, denials, deletions and balanced furry messages condemning violence from all sides – even there is sympathy and sympathy with the October 7 massacre. Also belonging to Mahmoud Abbas' prime minister, Mohammed Shtayyeh, who until this moment has not condemned. "What happened yesterday was yesterday," he said in a newspaper interview, "Israel is to blame for the situation. We need to concentrate on the Palestinian fatalities."
Adi Schwartz, Photo: Miriam Elster/Flash90
Another close associate of Mahmoud Abbas, Mahmoud al-Habbash, advisor on religious affairs and former PA minister of religious affairs, who now heads the PA's Sharia courts, clarifies that Palestinians in the West Bank "stand with their brethren in Gaza," "because they are a source of pride, heroism and honor for the Palestinian people." Al-Habbash, take note, calls the massacre "self-defense." "Israel," he said, "is the aggressor, while the Palestinians defend themselves... We are the victims of aggression and terrorism... And we have the right to use all forms of self-defense as enshrined in international law... What we are doing is nothing more than self-defense against Israeli terror."
Al-Habbash's remarks correspond with one of the first PA TV broadcasts, immediately after the massacre. The name of the incident was also called "self-defense." The broadcaster on the same broadcast even minced words, declaring in a mobilized tone full of pathos: "Today the Palestinian people have spoken, and the resistance has responded."
Another appointment of Mahmoud Abbas, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Mohammed Hussein, sent a week ago, in his Friday sermon on the Temple Mount, "greetings to 'Marbatin' there in Gaza." Muayed Shaaban, PA minister for the struggle against the fence and settlements, incited during the funeral of two terrorists in Tulkarem, speaking of "the most exalted martyrs of all" and "what is needed now: unity on the ground and fighting in the alleys of every refugee camp and in every territory in the homeland." "Today," the official PA channel announced on 7 October, "Gaza has dealt a blow that the occupation will not forget... Today we stood up united."
Many senior Fatah figures from various parts of Judea and Samaria now speak in the same vein: Hassan Daragma, a senior Fatah member in Tubas, calls Israel "the Zionist enemy" and expresses satisfaction that the so-called "invincible" army has turned out to be particularly weak. Mahmoud Sawafta, Fatah secretary in Tubas, "strengthens all the hands that taught the occupation lesson after lesson. This conquest," he is impressed, "is weaker than a spider's web, and will eventually be defeated. Therefore, we must crowd the ranks more and deal more blows to the occupation, which is the main enemy."
His colleague Iyad Jarad, secretary of Fatah in Tulkarem, said: "We stand with our brothers in Gaza, because they are a source of pride, heroism and honor for the Palestinian people." "All the enemies united against us," he notes, listing "the Americans, the British, the French and the Germans." "The whole West is trying to save the rival entity, but we, the Palestinian people, taught them a lesson in Gaza, the West Bank, Jerusalem, the '48 territories and the diaspora (official PA TV and Fatah's Facebook page, Tulkarem branch).
"A morning of joy"
Rafat Alyan, now a senior Fatah official and former Fatah spokesman in Jerusalem, also calls the massacre a "heroic operation." Alian sees it as "a natural consequence of the international bias in favor of Israel. The Palestinian had no choice. He had no option other than resistance."
Even former Palestinian minister Hanan Ashrawi, with diplomatic mannerisms and the first woman elected to the Palestinian Legislative Council, denies reality, defends the terrorist organization that carried out a massacre and dismisses as "nonsense" the documentation and photographs proving beheadings and rapes. "Hamas is not ISIS," she claims. "I don't support Hamas," she stresses, but notes that "it's at least 30 percent of the population." Another denier of reality is Hossam Zomlot, a senior PA diplomat. Zomlot states – referring to President Biden's backing of precise Israeli information in the case of the Islamic Jihad missile strike on a Gaza hospital – that "the American president is a liar."
Then there's Jamal al Hawil. Get to know. Fatah council member, convinced that "Allah desires us to see pictures similar to those we saw in Gaza in the West Bank... We need to return to a one-state solution, between the river and the sea," he recommends. "The occupation will also come as a great surprise in the West Bank," al-Hawil predicts, hoping: "We would like something similar to what happened in Gaza to develop in the West Bank." Al-Hawil wishes to return to the days of Arafat's Force 17 (which was involved in terrorism), "to strike and stand up for national honor and identity."
Unlike al-Hawil, Abd al-Rahman Abu al-Rab, a Fatah member in Jenin, does not merely express hope and "sends a sharp message, on behalf of the Fatah movement in the Jenin district, to all our brothers and all members of the Palestinian people, that they must act and participate in this heroic story." He even made it clear immediately after the massacre, to his people and to the Palestinian people, that it was "a morning of victory, a morning of joy, a morning of pride. We ask God to send blessings to our heroic martyrs in Gaza."
And all this "goodness" that takes place in the "good gay" districts, where "there are other Palestinians who are not Hamas," with whom America wants to do business for Israel, is accompanied by a blunt and harsh visual. Fatah Bethlehem, for example, posted a photo on its Telegram of a frightened mouse, lying on its back on top of a Star of David, with its four legs and tongue vibrating in fear of a black military shoe approaching him and threatening to crush and run him over.
In another gruesome online event, Palestinians from Judea and Samaria share a short video posted by the Gaza news agency Shehab, which belongs to the Al-Aqsa Network. The star of this video (documented by one of Ad Kan's researchers) is an eagle or eagle, somewhat reminiscent of the Reich Eagle. The big bird stands atop a steep rock. At the bottom of one of its wings is written "Gaza," and at the bottom of the other wing is "The Bank." In between, gunfire is heard and pictures from terrorist attacks are displayed. The eagle now spreads its wings and hovers above the Al Aqsa Mosque, where it sticks its claws into the eyes of a bird, which are two Stars of David. The caption that locks the video at the end of this attack is: "In order to break and defeat the enemy - Gaza needs you. Oh, the Haggadah."
This video contains almost the entire story that we, as Jews, are experiencing now, at least associatively, at least for me: the attack on the Reich eagle-like eagle is like the Nazi actions of Hamas three weeks ago. Pinning the eagle's claws into the eyes of the enemy's Star of David immediately brings to mind the Hamas monsters, which – in reality – gouged out the eyes of two Jewish children, young in years, in front of their terrified parents. All four were later executed. The inclusion of Al-Aqsa in the video also illustrates how central incitement was, not only in the PA, but also in the Hamas districts, through the lies of "Al-Aqsa is in danger."
"Also a war for the sake of Allah"
The fact that PA residents celebrate this visual and others like it, alongside speeches by the Fatah leader, many expressions of sympathy for the massacre on the Palestinian street, and the management of an education system that glorifies terrorism and educates in light of "martyrs" and "jihad," is on the one hand unacceptable, and on the other hand essential for anyone who wants to understand who we are really dealing with. Studying these difficult materials, which these days have had a renewed revival – there are many more – may spare us another foolish conception, this time about the Palestinian Authority and Judea and Samaria.
Itamar Marcus, founder and CEO of Palestinian Media Watch for 27 years, summed up this week what his eyes and ears saw, information and documentation, only a few of which we have brought here: "At first, the joy there was enormous. The feeling was that Hamas had fulfilled a dream that the PA only fantasized about. You repeatedly witness the use of the words 'joy', 'pride' and 'heroic'. Most of the celebrants don't mention the word "Hamas," because it's their political enemy. Support and identification are with the act itself, with the massacre. They embrace the deeds, just as they embrace terrorists from all factions, including Hamas. Just as they have transferred, and will continue to transfer to the murderers or their families grants for every Jew they murdered, and for every year they spend in prison. Yes, even for the October 7 massacres."
Only a few days later, Marcus says, "when it became clear to the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria how powerful and powerful the IDF's response was, was added to the celebrations the narrative of the 'victim,' who suffers terribly from Israel's 'massacres.' There were two other important motifs that emerge from the extensive documentation we have accumulated. First, that it is also a war for the sake of Allah. Palestinians today are no less, if not more, religious Muslims than Palestinians. Second, that Israel has suffered a severe blow, even though it enjoys the support of a superpower such as the United States and friendly countries in Europe. For them, it enhances the 'achievement'. That, too, is repeated again and again in our records."
In December 2022, a survey by the Palestinian Center for Political Sciences found that in the PA territories, 72 per cent of residents support the establishment of armed groups such as the Lion's Den, and about 87 per cent oppose the arrest of members of these networks to prevent them from acting against the IDF. The center's director, Dr. Khalil Shikaki, noted that ten years ago, support among the Palestinian public for the two-state solution was 55 per cent And now it's down to just 32 per cent. Six months later, a poll conducted by the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Political Research and Analysis found that Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is more popular than PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, receiving 56 percent support, compared to only 33 percent for Abbas.
Other polls from recent years reveal a similar picture, indicating Hamas' growing popularity in the West Bank as well, especially after military confrontations with Israel. For example, after Guardian of the Walls in 2021, a survey by the Palestinian Center for Survey and Policy Research found that 53 per cent of Palestinians believe Hamas should lead the Palestinians. Only 13% supported Abbas.
Abu Mazen vs. Balfour
Dr. Adi Schwartz, a research fellow at the Misgav Institute for Zionist Strategy and author of the book "The War of the Right of Return" (together with Einat Wilf), also notes that Hamas enjoys broad support from the population in the West Bank. "Even 17 years after Hamas came to power in Gaza, and even though they see what is happening in Gaza, still, in the West Bank, the majority is Hamas."
As someone who for years has mapped out the shades of the Palestinian public and leadership in their attitude toward Israel, Schwartz states that "the only one who condemned the massacre explicitly and clearly, and said it was horrific and barbaric and forbidden, was Mansour Abbas. Apart from him, there was no prominent and leading leader, neither from the PA nor from among Israeli Arabs, who disavowed or expressed explicit and clear shock at the massacre."
"It is possible," he says, "that there are all kinds of differences between Fatah and Hamas regarding the desired character of the Middle East. It is clear that Hamas, as part of the Muslim Brotherhood, has a more Islamist agenda, but when it comes to treating Israel as a Jewish state, there is no difference between Fatah and Hamas, and between both and other independent elements in the PA. As far as everyone is concerned, there is no legitimacy for a Jewish state in this region, and this creation called 'the State of Israel' must be cut off, destroyed and eliminated."
Schwartz advises everyone to "start taking seriously what Palestinians of all shades and factions say, and believing that they mean what comes out of their mouths. Mahmoud Abbas, for example, explained at a Fatah conference in Ramallah a few months ago that the Holocaust took place because of the Jews' preoccupation with money. He means it. When he says he opposes a Jewish state, there is no need to interpret that. You just have to believe him that this is his position.
"He and his population have annexed anti-Semitic expressions and thinking in the name of their stubborn opposition to a Jewish state. It should be noted that they are talking about 75 years of occupation, meaning that these are not the '67 borders that they want to return to. They want to go back to 1948, before the Jewish state came into being.
"Notice - who is Abu Mazen attacking?" stresses Schwartz, "Balfour, the one who gave the Jews the declaration of a national home. When Einat and I wrote our book, which documents the Palestinians' adherence and uncompromising commitment to the "right of return" into Israel, we were looking for one Palestinian, one, who would say that a Jewish state has the legitimacy to exist. We didn't find any. The PA was also at no stage willing to recognize a Jewish state, and at no point was it willing to give up the right of return."
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