GNITN - Special Edition

Israel At War – Day 168

More Polling Results

And Now Americans Weigh In

Yesterday I talked about how Gazan’s felt about the war in Israel and the attack that started it. Now there is a poll asking Americans their views on it from an article in the Jerusalem News Syndicate:

Regardless of how they feel about Oct. 7, almost half of U.S. Muslim adults (49%) say that Hamas had “valid” reasons to fight Israel, and 21% of that demographic said that Hamas’s terror attack on Oct. 7 was either “completely acceptable” (10%) or “somewhat acceptable” (11%).

That’s according to new data from the Pew Research Center, based on a survey of 12,693 American adults between Feb. 13 and Feb. 25.

Pew gives us more details on how the survey was done:

“Unlike most nationally representative polling in the United States since the war began, our survey includes enough Jewish and Muslim respondents to allow their views to be analyzed separately,” Pew stated in a release. (The survey, which is oversampled for Jews and Muslims, has a margin of error of 1.5 percentage points in either direction.)

The views played out this way:

While more than one in five American Muslim adults said that it was at least “somewhat acceptable” that Hamas—which the United States has designated a terrorist organization for 27 years—attacked the Jewish state on Oct. 7, just about 5% of U.S. adults overall thought that. Three percent of U.S. Jewish adults said that Hamas’s attack was acceptable.

Nearly three in four (73%) American adults said that the way Hamas carried out its Oct. 7 attack was unacceptable, with 66% saying Hamas’s reasons were “completely unacceptable.”

Israel’s war split Jews and Muslims this way:

Well over half (62%) of American Jews and 5% of Muslim Americans said Israel’s war in Gaza is acceptable, while 68% of American Muslims said it was unacceptable.

American of all stripes said this about military and humanitarian support in the area:

American adults overwhelmingly support Washington providing humanitarian aid to Gaza (50% in favor, 19% opposed), while 36% favor the United States providing Israel with military aid and 34% do not.

Political Views

When it comes to the political views, it breaks down like this:

Republicans and Democrats are divided greatly on the war, according to Pew data.

More than half (52%) of Democrats and independents who lean Democrat say that Israel’s response to Oct. 7 is unacceptable, while 17% of Republicans and right-leaning independents said that.

Just under a quarter of Democrats (24%)—down from 35% in 2022—have favorable views of the Israeli government overall, compared to 63% of Republicans. Some 23% of Americans had a favorable view of the Palestinian Authority.

The two-state solution polled like this:

A majority of Democrats and Republicans does not favor a two-state solution, according to Pew data. Just under half (48%) of Democrats and 33% of Republicans want an independent Palestinian state. More than a quarter (26%) of Republicans—up from 18% in 2022—favor a single state run by Israel.

A younger age group sees the war this way:

Americans under the age of 30 represented the only group in which less than half (38%) said that Israel had a valid reason to fight Hamas. A similar number (34%) of those under 30 said that Hamas had valid reasons to fight Israel.

Overall people don’t think peace between Palestinians and Israel is likely:

Only 3% of American adults surveyed said that it was “extremely” or “very” likely that there will be lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

These results don’t really support the US governments statements about the vast amount of
Americans not supporting Israel’s handling of the war, but they do illustrate why supporting Israel and Muslims is an element of Biden’s political campaign strategy. And it is appears they are walking a fine line if getting support from both is the goal. To some, it is all about winning Nevada and Michigan.

Israel Will Go It Alone

In a meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stressed that an operation in Rafah will happen eventually as we read in an article from The Times Of Israel:

After meeting with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu doubled down on the message he has expressed in recent days — that while Israel will happily work with the US on improving the humanitarian situation and evacuating civilians from Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah, a military operation there is inevitable.

In a video statement after meeting with Blinken, Netanyahu said, “I told him that I deeply appreciate the fact that for more than five months, we have stood together in the war against Hamas.”

“I told him that we recognize the need to evacuate the civilian population for the war zone and of course to take care of humanitarian needs, and we are working on that,” he continued.

Netanyahu then stated that the goal of defeating Hamas won’t happen without moving into Rafah even if they have to do it all by themselves:

“But I also told him that we don’t have a way to defeat Hamas without going into Rafah, and eliminating the remaining battalions there. And I told him that I hope that we will do it with America’s support, but if we need, we will do it alone,” he said.

Blinken would essentially say the same thing, but not only about a mission into Rafah, but if no concrete plan for the post-war Gaza is settled on:

Blinken told reporters after the meeting that the US shares Israel’s goal of defeating Hamas and ensuring its long-term security, but that a Rafah operation “is not the way to do it.”

“It risks killing more civilians. It risks wreaking greater havoc with the delivery of humanitarian assistance. It risks further isolating Israel around the world and jeopardizing its long-term security and standing,” Blinken said on the Ben Gurion Airport tarmac just before boarding a plane to depart.

According to the Walla news site, in his meeting with Netanyahu and his war cabinet, Blinken also warned that if Israel does not come up with a plan for the “day after” Hamas, it will be stuck in Gaza for years and will see its international standing undermined and national security endangered.

I have said it before and I continue to say that Israel ultimately will have to take out terrorists from all sides by themselves. Meetings and comments like these only prove my point.

The Numbers Just Keep Getting Bigger

After four days of the raid at Gaza’s largest medical complex, the IDF is finding, capturing, or killing almost 650 people who worked with Hamas including 358 confirmed to be terrorists themselves as we see in an article from The Times Of Israel:

Troops have captured some 650 terror suspects, including several “very significant” senior Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad commanders, during an ongoing operation at Gaza City’s Shifa Hospital, the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency said Thursday, as talks continued in Qatar to secure an extended truce and hostage deal.

According to the IDF, at least 358 of the detainees were confirmed to be members of terror groups.

This is a huge development as the area was thought to be cleared of terrorists last year. The good news in all of this is that the majority surrendered rather than being killed which means information they have could help in the war effort. A lot of high ranking terrorists were caught:

The IDF said that Islamic Jihad operatives holed up at the medical center surrendered to troops, including Hussam Salameh, the commander of PIJ’s observation and intelligence unit in Gaza City, and his brother, Wissam Salameh, head of the terror group’s propaganda unit in Gaza City.

In an evening press conference, IDF Spokesman Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari detailed additional senior PIJ operatives who were captured by troops at Shifa, including the commander of the terror group’s Shejaiya Battalion, the deputy commander of PIJ’s Northern Gaza Brigade, and a PIJ commander charged with the terror group’s tunnels in northern Gaza.

Also captured at Shifa were three senior officers in Hamas’s so-called West Bank headquarters, which is tasked with advancing attacks against Israel from the West Bank, the army said.

The Shin Bet named them as Amr Asida, the head of the Nablus unit; Mahmoud Qawasmeh, one of the planners of the 2014 kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens; and Hamdallah Hassan Ali, who was also involved in directing recent attacks in the West Bank.

Hagari said there were additional “very significant” senior Hamas commanders who were captured by troops at Shifa, but that their identities could not immediately be disclosed due to their ongoing interrogations.

More terrorists are still in the hospital and the IDF is working on capturing them without harming civilians. I don’t think I need to tell you this, but information like this will allow those of us who are Christians to pray specifically for the peace of Jerusalem. And I encourage you to do just that.