Do Virtually All Palestinians Support the October 7 Massacres and Hamas?
A listener's question highlights the media myth that the terrorist organization has nothing to do with Palestinians and what they want.
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Hello! This is the second newsletter accompanying Episode 17. Be sure to see yesterday’s newsletter focused on polls in the presidential race.
In the second part of this episode, a listener asks:
I saw a poll that claimed only 8% of Palestinians believe what Hamas did on October 7th was wrong. As a longtime advocate for peace and a two state solution, this number was a gut punch. How can peace be possible when only 8% of the population considers the humanity of the other side? How do we know if this poll and its numbers are legitimate?
I explain what the numbers show, and why they’re so crucial to understand. The image that a lot of people like to provide is a fake one. They like to pretend that Hamas somehow has nothing to do with Palestinians and what they want.
The survey comes from the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research. It does seem to follow steps to achieve representative samples, making the findings likely to reflect what people think. And they’ve generally shown a consistent pattern. Here’s a write-up that the Foundation for Defense of Democracies put together on recent survey results from this agency, and a report from i24.
I’ve looked at surveys from this group dating back to before the current war. They’ve long found that Palestinians strongly support slaughtering civilians. This is a natural result of what Palestinians are taught in schools, as I explained in Episode 8: All the Queen’s Lies, Part II.
What you can do
Here’s the kind of text you can send to top executives at any news agency that needs to hear it — which is most of them! Include links to their latest problematic reports.
Dear Editors,
In this reporting, you have once again portrayed Palestinians as pure victims of civilian casualties, without even mentioning that Palestinians overwhelmingly support the slaughter of civilians — as long as those civilians are in Israel. As the podcast They Stand Corrected has explained in detail, repeated surveys show widespread support for terrorism, the October 7 massacres, and Hamas among Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. The most obvious question to ask any and all Palestinians who decry the alleged deaths of civilians is why they support the deaths of civilians elsewhere — and even celebrate those deaths with candy and fireworks.
You also have a journalistic responsibility to inform your audience, every time , that you have no idea how many actual civilians have been killed in Gaza. The only alleged figures available are from Hamas, a terrorist organization that lies. As They Stand Corrected explains, the attempted justifications for using Hamas’ “Ministry of Health” figures make no sense.
Please correct your reporting immediately and let me know the precise steps you are taking to avoid this journalistic failure. We, the public, deserve the truth from you, always.
See bad reporting you want me to check out? If you’re a paid subscriber, post a note to me in the comments here! Other folks can find a form via my website.
Thanks,
JL