Palestinians Think Israel is Winning

By Daniel Greenfield @ Sultan Knish Blog

Ask some Israelis about the war in Gaza and they can sound pessimistic. The war is a slog. It can’t keep on going. International critics complain that the war has no clear goalposts (beyond destroying Hamas) and is inherently unwinnable. What does victory even look like?

There’s one metric that they seem to have overlooked.

In 2023, 70% of ‘Palestinians’ thought that Hamas was going to win. Today, only 43% do.

After the Oct 7 attacks, 72% of them thought that the Hamas attack was a good idea. Today only half still do. The number of those who admit it was a bad idea rose from 22% to 40%.

In Gaza, 58% now acknowledge that Oct 7 was a mistake.

And these numbers have been steadily and consistently dropping as the war goes on.

Among the enemy population, victory is no longer an option and most hope for a ceasefire. 43% are willing to leave the Gaza Strip. 50%, a majority, are willing to ask Israel for help to leave.

Less than half of those in Gaza are happy with how Hamas has fought the war. In Gaza, 29% believe that Israel is winning the war. Only 23% believe that Hamas is.

While the enemy population in Judea and Samaria (known in the media as the West Bank) has more confidence in Hamas than those in Gaza do, 75% of them fear that the war will spread, 65% believe that their cities will be destroyed if war comes and 40% believe Israel will win.

Even as too many Israelis quarrel among themselves, the enemy’s morale is crumbling. And in a war against terrorists who operate among the civilian population, morale is paramount.

Insurgencies don’t win because they have superior tactics, technology or infrastructure, but because they have superior staying power. Islamic Jihadis outlasted the United States in Iraq and Afghanistan. Hamas bet everything on being able to outlast Israel. But what if it can’t?

The only remaining Hamas strategies are to force a permanent ceasefire using perhaps 20 living hostages (and more kidnapped dead bodies) as leverage or to hide behind a ‘Palestinian’ state under the control of its rivals in Ramallah. And both strategies depend on Qatar being able to wrangle the United States and Europe into pressuring Israel and bailing out Hamas.

Without America and European intervention and Israeli defeatism, Hamas has no hope.

Israel lost 9 soldiers in Gaza in June. It lost 41 soldiers in all of 2025. Compare that to 28 fatalities in June 2024. Hamas is still able to move its 20 or so hostages around tunnels and in civilian houses, but it’s not posing much of a threat to Israeli soldiers in Gaza anymore.

On Oct 7, 2023, Hamas was part of a coalition with Hezbollah, Syria, Yemen and Iraqi Jihadis following a master plan out of Tehran. Out of that coalition, Syria is gone, Hezbollah is broken, the Iraqis are staying out of it, Iran is burning and only Yemen’s Houthis are still fighting. If Israel succeeds in using the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation to direct aid away from Hamas, the Islamic terrorist group loses much of its money and control over the population in Gaza.

Even its American university fanbase is moving on to fresh causes, like protesting for illegal aliens, because a good deal of their enthusiasm for Hamas came from its Oct 7 massacres, the paragliders, the rapes at a music festival and the mass invasion, which are starting to recede into history. And Hamas hasn’t killed Jews in any hip ways lately.

No one, from the Middle East to the Harvard campus, likes a loser. And Hamas is a loser.

Some Israelis and Americans may see the war as an endless slog, but the ‘Palestinians’ are coming to recognize it as a dead end. They’re not about to give up on terrorism or even on Hamas, but they are recognizing that they lost and dealing with all that comes with it. Including the willingness by surprising numbers among the enemy in Gaza to leave Israel.

The ultimate purpose of war is to break the enemy’s morale. Muslim countries perpetuate myths of victory even in the face of total defeat. Saddam celebrated the Gulf War as a victory. Egypt annually commemorates its ‘October victory’ in the Yom Kippur War. Hamas has tried to sell Oct 7 as a victory but even its people increasingly no longer believe that they’re winning anything.

Paradoxically neither do a lot of Israelis.

Israeli media polls are suspect, but they show that a sizable percentage of the population appears willing to give up and sign a deal with Hamas, ending the war in exchange for 20 hostages. After Germany appeared to be pulling its support, a number of Israeli opinionmakers urged an end to the fighting. Such paroxysms of defeatism have become a regular feature.

A lot of Israelis are understandably tired of the fighting and willing to give up even as they approach victory. They are being subjected to a torrent of negativity from their domestic radical leftists, from their media and from the international community all of which reject the war. And the longer the war goes on, the more futile (like most wars) it seems to those fighting it, but wars are won on endurance and staying power, not just on lightning strikes and brilliant tactics. Israel has never lacked for brilliant tactics, what it lacks (like us) is staying power in a conflict.

There’s an old Jewish joke. Two elderly Jewish men are sitting on a park bench in 1930s Germany. One of them flips open a copy of a British paper while the other starts reading Der Sturmer. “Why are you reading that Nazi rag?” the first man demands. “Your paper says that we’re being rounded up and killed. Mine says that we run the world,” the second man replies.

Israelis could learn something from tuning out their own suicidal media and looking at what the enemy thinks. While Israeli media runs the gamut from defeatism (Yediot) to outright treason (Haaretz), their enemies are starting to figure out that they lost and that Israel is winning.

‘Palestinians’ think Israel is winning, but too many Israelis have come to believe they’re losing.

Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine. Click here to subscribe to my articles. And click here to support my work with a donation.  Thank you for reading.

 

 

Why the Cattle Cars Aren’t Being Built

November 15, 2024 By Robin M. Itzler @ American Thinker

Against the brutality of October 7, 2023, it’s been heartwarming for Jews to be surrounded by Christian love and support. This is so unlike what happened in the years leading up to the Holocaust. In 1933, Germany’s population was 67 million. German Jews were less than 1% of the population—just over 500,000. Yet, in 1933, the satanic Adolph Hitler, whose party received the greatest number of seats in the Reichstag, leading to his being appointed chancellor, blamed the country’s microscopic Jewish population for everything bad that had happened to Germany since World War I.

The cattle cars were being built...

There were no phone cameras or social media, and yet the horrors of Jewish life in the Third Reich crept out. And what was the world’s response? Mostly silence. From the Vatican to the White House, from church pulpits to Pulitzer reporters, mostly silence. Yes, there were many instances of “righteous Christians” risking and sometimes losing their lives to save Jews...but overall, silence.

This confirmed the Nazi belief that the world wanted Auschwitz to be built ...

Thankfully there wasn’t silence following the barbaric October 7 attack, when Hamas (supported by a majority of Gazan Palestinians) murdered, tortured, raped, killed or kidnapped innocent Israelis. Almost immediately, the world saw examples of Christian solidarity with Jews/Israel including:

• Christian nations shining the Israeli flag on their buildings or iconic monuments.
• Christians wearing T-shirts or pins with American and Israel flags.
• Churches inviting Jews to speak about what was happening in Israel.
• Churches raising money and/or sending supplies to Israel.
• Christians wearing a Star of David along with their cherished cross to show support.
• Christians attending city council meetings to protest any resolution that supported pro-Hamas Palestinians.
• Leading Christian spokespeople galvanizing support for Israel’s fight to protect itself and defend Western civilization against Iranian-sponsored terrorism.
• Many Christians putting a mezuzah on their doorpost to show solidarity with Jews. (Symbolizing faith, a mezuzah consists of a small parchment scroll bearing sacred Hebrew verses from the Torah and encased in a decorative holder. More religious Jews put a mezuzah on the doorpost of every room.)

And more than one year after the vicious attack, Christians continue to stand with Jews and Israel. In August, actress Patricia Heaton (Everybody Loves Raymond and Carol’s Second Chance) told Prager U CEO Marissa Streit:

Christ’s biological family is being murdered. Our savior’s biological family, the Jewish people, are being murdered. We need to stand for them. We are grafted into Israel by the graciousness of God, so we need to stand for them.

Just a few weeks ago, the Netherlands leadership outcry (from the king to politicians) condemned the brutal November 7 pro-Hamas/Palestinian Muslim pogrom on Israelis who were in their country for a soccer match. Knowing that three-quarters of its Jewish citizens were murdered in the Holocaust, King Willem-Alexander said after the attack:

Jews must feel safe in the Netherlands, everywhere and at all times. We put our arms around them and will not let them go.

Whether it’s a rally with thousands of attendees or one lone person at a debate, Christians continue to stand with their Jewish brethren to support Israel. For instance, on October 30, Arthur Schaper stepped away from his role as Field Director of MassResistance to staunchly defend Israel when he debated pro-Palestinian Nick Taurus.

Schaper is Christian, and Taurus is Catholic.

Early in the debate, Taurus refuted the exact number of Israeli civilians that Hamas murdered, tortured, raped, killed, and kidnapped on October 7. When you view the 90-minute debate video, you might be reminded of when J.D. Vance was interviewed by ABC’s leftist host Martha Raddatz.

Raddatz quibbled with Vance about the exact number of Aurora, Colorado, apartment buildings that had been taken over by vicious Venezuelan gangs—as if three apartment buildings being destroyed by illegal alien criminals was acceptable rather than the higher number Vance referenced.

Do you remember how Vance responded to the pathetic Raddatz? “Martha, do you hear yourself?”

When Taurus nitpicked the exact number of innocent Israelis murdered, tortured, raped, killed, and kidnapped by Hamas on October 7, we couldn’t help but think: “Taurus, do you hear yourself?” As if any number of Israelis murdered, tortured, raped, killed, or kidnapped in an unprovoked attack would be acceptable.

It would be like antisemites brushing off the Nazi slaughter of six million Jews because they claim the number is 5.9 million.

Elsewhere in the debate, Taurus demanded that Israel return to the United Nation’s 1948 borders. If Palestinians did not accept the UN border in 1948, why would today’s pro-Hamas Palestinians accept those borders in 2024? Palestinians support terrorists Hamas and applauded their October 7 attack on Israel. A two-state solution between Israel and the pro-Hamas Palestinians would be the same as your being asked to share an apartment with a serial mass murderer.

America First Patriots staunchly stand with Israel, as does President-elect Donald Trump. Interestingly, the pro-Palestinian Taurus wore a “Make America Great Again” hat. He yelled out, “Free Palestine!” but never “God Bless America!” Moreover, after the debate, an audience member dressed in patriotic colors with a Trump button and hat spoke to Schaper in a videotaped discussion where he stated that Jews were responsible for 9/11.

Pro-Palestinian? Blaming Jews for 9/11? Shouldn’t these folks have worn Kamala Harris hats?

Being a firm believer in our First Amendment’s right to free speech, Schaper and Taurus should be applauded for holding a debate that ended with handshakes. But the key takeaway from this event, held in an Orange County, California, clubhouse, was that the Christian Arthur Schaper concisely and confidently stood up for Israel.

Thanks to Christians like Mr. Schaper, the cattle cars are not being built!

Image: YouTube screen grab.

Robin M. Itzler is a regular contributor to American Thinker. She is the founder and editor of Patriot Neighbors, a free weekly national newsletter. Robin can be reached at PatriotNeighbors@yahoo.com.

This article has been updated for greater accuracy about Hitler's rise to power.

Rape is Resistance and Beepers are Genocide

By Daniel Greenfield @ Sultan Knish Blog

The myth that Israel’s tactics not its existence is at issue died with the murdered Jewish families on Oct 7 and the Hezbollah terrorists taken out by pagers on September 17 and 18.

No sooner did the encrypted communications devices handed out to members of the Islamic Jihadist group begin exploding than human rights experts and the UN began condemning the single greatest targeted attack on a terror group as a violation of international law. Those same organizations and activists had nothing to say about the Hezbollah rocket attacks on Israeli towns and villages that turned tens of thousands of Jews into refugees in their own country.

There is no legitimate way for Israel (or any non-Muslim country) to take out an Islamic terrorist. No amount of warnings, phone calls and dropped leaflets and roof knocking warning bombs were enough of a precaution. Even hostage rescue operations were condemned for killing terrorists who in the usual Hamas medical department parlance turned into innocent children.

And there’s also no such thing as an illegitimate Muslim way to kill Jews. Oct 7 proved that. Nearly a year later, Islamic groups are celebrating the orgy of butchery, kidnapping and rape. The Democratic Socialists of America, which boasts 5 allied members of Congress including Rep. Rashida Tlaib, has taken to arguing in favor of “armed resistance” and Hamas.

More Democrats have taken to social media to condemn a Detroit News cartoon which implied that Rep. Tlaib’s support for terrorism may have led her to worry about her pager than two recent Muslim terrorist plots to massacre Jews in synagogues in Vegas and New York City. The Democrat political establishment can’t seem to get around to condemning the Islamic groups attacking synagogues and marching through the streets praising the rape and murder of Jews.

The liberal establishment accepts the Islamic terrorist cause but rejects the Israeli one.

That’s why when it comes to Islamic terrorism, it emphasizes the cause over the tactics, but when it comes to Israel, it emphasizes the tactics over the cause. Every Israeli tactic is illegitimate because the cause, a Jewish State, is illegitimate, but no Islamic tactic is ever truly illegitimate because its cause, replacing Israel with an Islamic state, is legitimate.

No matter how often the Arab Muslim invaders occupying parts of Gaza and the West Bank pledge their allegiance to terror, we are told that their ultimate cause is just and inevitable. And that the killings, kidnappings and rapes don’t truly represent the moral righteousness of it.

While every time Israel takes out a terrorist, the media links it to the Jewish ‘occupation’ of those parts of Israel that the terrorists demand for themselves. Since Israel’s existence is wrong, any tactic that it uses to fight the terrorists trying to take it over is a human rights violation.

The Marxist mobs in the street are at least honest about their ideological orientation. They define all Jews living in Israel as “settlers” who are fair game for genocide. Whether Israel takes them out with drone strikes, exploding beepers or Barney songs played on a loop doesn’t much matter except as it’s useful for propaganda materials calling for the destruction of Israel.

The liberal anti-Israel establishment in D.C., human rights groups and the media have played a cynical game of focusing on Israel tactics as if they actually cared how Israel takes out terrorists and as if there were any means of taking out terrorists that would win their approval. A generation of the Israeli military jumping through every possible hoop has yielded only angrier and more sanctimonious condemnations every time another terrorist bites the dust.

Israel has wasted a lot of the lives of its soldiers and civilians on its side in the hopes of achieving some phantom ‘purity of arms’ that included an extensive approvals process for strikes that crippled its aerial response on Oct 7. Afterward things got better and worse. The pager attack was brilliantly calculated and yet crippled by an obsessive need to take out specific targets rather than inflicting as much damage on the Hezbollah terrorists as possible.

The painstaking efforts to monitor the terrorists to minimize collateral damage and to focus on specific targets did not change the inevitable condemnations that came rolling Israel’s way.

The real lesson of the pager attacks was that an innovative Israeli attack on Islamic terrorists will be cheered by the right people and condemned by the wrong ones. Israeli Hasbara is a fundamentally misguided effort to explain the need for a war whose hand wringing signals weakness and guilt. What makes people cheer for Israel are accomplishments, winning a war in six days, rescuing hostages from Africa, taking out an Islamic nuclear program on July 4th, and detonating the communications devices of a terrorist group responsible for killing Americans.

No one except the occasional military expert who tours the battlefield is impressed by Israeli restraint. And restraint will win not a single concession from the same establishment that can’t bring itself to condemn by name the mobs waving Hamas flags and assaulting Jewish students.

Israel has been held hostage trying to win over those who cannot be won over. Much of the liberal establishment has either become radicalized into permanently opposing Israel or has become complicit with those who do. The only narrative it will accept is the same demands that Israel be dismantled piece by piece and parceled out to Islamic terrorists in exchange for peace.

That the peace has never come, that the negotiations are worthless and that the only product of two generations of concessions is endless war will not change a single mind. Just as the implication of the revelation that Hamas planned to murder Israeli hostages before handing them over in exchange for live Islamic terrorists was hardly even discussed in the media.

After nine months of demanding a deal with Hamas at any cost, the Biden administration has belatedly decided that the terrorist group is not serious about a deal, but that news hasn’t changed Kamala’s set talking point about the urgent need to end the war and cut a deal. Nor will it change her policy should she be in a position to stop talking and start making the rules.

Israel has been divided by the need to balance winning wars against winning over public opinion, but the public opinion of the establishment was never winnable and if it is winnable, it can only be won by winning wars. The Biden administration’s policymakers will never admit it, but they were far more impressed by the pager attacks than by 9 months of negotiations. The same is more obviously true of Arab Muslim countries who despise Hezbollah and fear Iran.

No one cheers weakness, they only respect strength.

Israel will never have even the grudging acceptance of those who believe that rape is resistance and beepers are genocide. Accommodating military tactics to their accusations has led to a loop of defeatism that culminated in the deadly infiltration, invasion and massacres of Oct 7. But it can best be a player on the world stage by showing its strength rather than its weakness.

One Pagergeddon was worth a hundred Nova documentaries and exhibitions about the unhappy victims who were assaulted at the dance festival to morale, national security and the reputation of a nation built on repudiating the helplessness and victimhood of its long exile.

Oct 7 incited the dark glee of a movement that believes it can taste Israel’s destruction. Protestations of innocence and victimhood only feed its triumphalism. What it fears isn’t a documentary about the atrocities of Oct 7, but the destruction of its Jihadist armies.

The issue was never Israel’s tactics, but Israel’s existence. The only way to win… is to win.

 Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine.  Click here to subscribe to my articles. And click here to support my work with a donation. Thank you for reading.