Gazans blame Hamas for their economic condition and the relative lack of terrorism against Israel.
Israel bashers constantly tell anyone that will listen to them that Israel is responsible for poverty in Gaza and for Gazans lack of goods and services and that ordinary Gazans cannot and should not be held responsible for terrorist acts committed by their Hamas rulers.
That’s not what ordinary Gazans think.
The Washington Post recently dispatched a reporter to Gaza who spoke to many ordinary Gazans and asked them what they thought about Hamas’s performance since it was elected in 2006. The response was overwhelmingly negative. Hamas was elected because it promised to provide clean government free of corruption and to carry out unrelenting terrorist acts against Israel. It has not lived up to either one of these promises and the people the Post reporter interviewed were clearly angry, frustrated and disappointed. Surveys have shown that their views are widespread and that Hamas would not be re-elected if an election were held today.
Ordinary Gazans want clean, uncorrupted government because they draw a straight line between government corruption and the poverty and lack of goods and services in their society, not because they value clean, uncorrupted government as an end in itself. They know that Hamas is corrupt through and through and that this corruption causes their penury. They don’t blame Israel because they understand that Israel is not at fault. Hamas is at fault because it is corrupt and ordinary Gazans are fully aware of this...they see the results of the corruption every day and know full well that they suffer because of it.
It's not Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza that causes economic hardship there, despite what Israel bashers say. It's corruption, Hamas’s corruption, and ordinary Gazans know it, even if Israel bashers don’t, or even worse if they do and refuse to admit it.
Gazans are disappointed that Hamas has not carried out more terrorist acts against Israel because they are unalterably opposed to Israel’s existence and are consumed by Jew-hatred and anti-Semitism. They want nothing more than to see Israel destroyed and Israelis driven from the land and they view Israel’s existence and the Jewish presence there as an insult and an affront to them and their religion, Islam, which is full of Jew hatred and exhortations for the faithful to murder Jews and rid the world of them. Terrorist acts are seen as a means of doing this, and ordinary Gazans are disappointed that Hamas has not committed many more of them.
A young mother who was interviewed asked “Where are all the dead Jews we were promised?” and blamed Hamas for not killing more Jews than it has, for not providing her with more Jewish corpses than it has. Ordinary Gazans in their multitudes are asking the same question.
So there you are, Israel bashers. That’s what ordinary Gazans really think, what they really want.
Here’s a prediction. Hamas won’t change its corrupt nature and corruption will remain endemic in Gaza, but it will launch a major terrorist attack against Israel soon in order to curry favor with Gazans. .
Ordinary Gazans.
It will murder as many Israelis as it can to pander to ordinary Gazans barbaric, inhuman desires and keep itself in power.
Bet on it.
Israel bashers take note.
Jerry Philipson is a retired grandfather who has spent many years working in non-profit social service agencies in Canada and the United States. He holds dual Canadian and American citizenship and has been passionate about politics, civil liberties, freedom and democracy for virtually his whole life. He is particularly interested in the Middle East and America and believes that it is vital for people of good heart and good conscience to speak out against tyranny and dishonesty and to stand up and defend and protect Western values, principles and institutions.
