All Those Innocent Palestinians

Littlechild@emperorsnuclothes.com/ December 1, 2023/ Uncategorized

As noted by commentator Hugh Fitzgerald, “one of the soothing notions being disseminated by the Biden administration is that Hamas must be clearly distinguished from the “ordinary people” in Gaza, who, we are led to believe, deplore the terrorist atrocities and want only to be left alone to lead peaceful lives. It’s a comforting thought, but it isn’t true.”

First, there are numerous reports that civilian Gazans entered into Israel with and behind the Hamas fighters. As one of the survivors of the Hamas music festival attack on the 7th of October 2023 has claimed:

“When I say ‘terrorist,’ I am including not only Hamas but also the thousands of Gazan citizens who infiltrated the country of Israel just to loot, rape and kill.”

As discussed in the Skeptics blog: “Gazan Civilians did join the attack, took part in looting and at least in some of the violence. It would be hard to determine the exact number and in some cases to differentiate them from militants.”(https://skeptics.stackexchange.com) These “joiners” are as guilty as Hamas itself.

Israel Defense Forces (IDF), now in Gaza, have documented that they have encountered a number of Palestinians who spoke Hebrew (in addition, of course, to Arabic). Who were these Hebrew-speaking Arabs, you might ask? Undoubtedly they were among the 20,000 Gazans who had been given permits to work in Israel.

As an aside, when I visited the West Bank a decade ago (which, although not Gaza, per se, endures, I suspect, a similar underlying reality), at the border checkpoint, I was surprised to see that large numbers of Arabs went in to Israel every day to work. Apparently there is so much unemployment in the West Bank that the Arab population has had, for many years, to go into Israel to find enough work to feed themselves and their families. At the end of the day they would cross back into the West Bank where they lived. A similar situation exists, apparently, for the Gazans of today. It turns out that some of the Hebrew speaking Gazans, we now know, provided information to Hamas on the best ways into Israel, the layout and populations of the kibbutzim, the presence or absence of security, and in some cases, even the number, and age, of family members. I don’t think anyone would consider these Palestinian spies as “innocent.”

Well you might say, what about the “average joe” Palestinians? The ones that didn’t join the attack, and, because they don’t work in Israel, could not have done any sort of reconnaissance for Hamas? What about them?

A poll was recently conducted by the Arab World for Research and Development, a research organization based in the West Bank that is recognized by the United Nations. It is also associated with Birzeit University. The poll was carried out after the Oct. 7 attacks and following Israel’s military invasion of Gaza. To the question, “How much do you support the military operation carried out by the Palestinian resistance led by Hamas on October 7th?” 59.3 per cent supported it strongly, with another 15.7 per cent of people supporting it somewhat — a combined total of SEVENTY FIVE PERCENT backing the slaughter of men, women and children. That doesn’t sound too “innocent” to me.

But how about the bigger picture? Well, a Nov. 14 survey by a West Bank polling firm, as documented in the National Post, asked Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank what kind of state they wanted to establish: one state for two peoples garnered the support of 5.4 per cent of respondents; a two-state solution was supported by 17.2 per cent; but the clear-winner, with 74.7 per cent in favour, was a “Palestinian state from the river to the sea.” In other words, three quarters of Gazans want the total destruction of Israel. These words are NOT those of innocents, I think you’ll agree.

And, it must not be forgotten, also, that it was among these “innocent Gazans” that Hamas took refuge, recruited members, established command centers, dug tunnels, grew strong, and at the very least, received moral support. And, worse than all of that, these same “innocent” Gazans raised their children to abhor their neighbor Israel and hunger for its destruction. I think it’s obvious that, when all is said and done, there really are few completely “innocent Gazans.”

Lastly, because the analysis given above is largely statistical in nature, I think it might be demonstrative to “flesh out” the true positions held by Gazans regarding Jews and Israel with the following vignette. This lovely lady has some choice words as to where she stands on Israel as well as Hamas and its objectives: