Only Slim Majority of Americans Believes Hamas Is ‘Deliberately Striking Israeli Civilians’

According to a YouGov poll, only about half of Americans believe Hamas is targeting Israeli civilians on purpose, despite video documenting atrocities splashing across screens. Expect the terrorist group to ramp up efforts to soften the view of Jerusalem’s moral authority, hoping PR and propaganda can win what weapons cannot.The YouGov poll survey of 3,523 American adults found 53 percent — 62 percent of men and 46 percent of women — believe Hamas is “deliberately” striking civilians compared to 29 percent who believe Israel does so. On whether the combatants were “not actively avoiding” civilians, the numbers were close: 13 percent for Hamas and 19 percent for Israel.“I decline utterly to be impartial,” Winston Churchill said, “between the fire brigade and the fire,” but in the current conflict, Hamas can count on a sizable portion of Americans being unsure just who is torching civilians across Israel and Gaza. An identical 28 percent said they “don’t know” if either side is targeting non-combatants.The war began with one of the worst massacres of civilians in Israel’s history when Hamas launched a rocket and ground attack against the outdoor Nova Festival. Advertised as a celebration of “friends, love, and peace,” it ended with 2,000, injured, scores slaughtered, and many survivors taken captive.Israeli young people might expect their American peers to identify with the horrors they suffered at the festival if not with the 900 people Hamas has killed so far, but the YouGov poll found just a third, 32 percent, of Americans ages 18 to 24 believe Hamas is targeting civilians. Among those 65 and older, the number is over three quarters, 76 percent.The fact that so many Americans are ignorant of which side is targeting civilians shows the success Hamas has had in getting their message out through social media and the press. In July, the Center for Strategic & International Studies described how Hamas and the fellow Iranian-backed terrorist group, Hezbollah, shape global opinion with information technology.A CSIS summary of the study describes how, unlike Al-Qaeda and ISIS, which focus on terrorism and war, Hamas is also Gaza’s de facto governing body. “Propaganda,” CSIS wrote, “plays a critical role for Hamas as it seeks to shore up its popularity” at home and shape its image abroad.Hamas publishes its website in English, French, and Hebrew as well as Arabic. “Operationally, Hamas has used social media to a limited degree,” but a quick scan of posts finds many Hamas talking points have taken root, inspiring the moral relativism reflected in the poll.By contrast, little is said about the IDF going to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties, even as Hamas hides military equipment in civilian buildings such as hospitals, apartments, and mosques. To minimize the death toll, Israel innovated tactic of “roof knocking” with warning shots on buildings and of calling residents to inform them before a military strike.The mere act of polling on manifest facts, not to mention the results, is a victory for Hamas. So is the fact that the group managed to launch a surprise attack, killing or kidnapping men, women, and children — including about 150 hostages they’re now threatening to execute in front of cameras — without suffering universal condemnation from Americans.Hamas is known to have killed at least 14 Americans already and others are feared among the hostages. As their faces and stories become known, how much their fellow citizens sympathize will also help shape the conflict’s endgame. Atrocities such as the one reported by a correspondent for i24News, Nicole Zedeck, of Hamas slaughtering 40 babies at an Israeli kibbutz may also turn the tide.The Hamas attack was described as “Israel’s 9/11” and the worst loss of Jewish civilians since the Holocaust, yet apathy and a refusal to cast blame still has a hold on the American public. To maintain Washington’s support as Hamas seeks to erode it, Israel and her friends will need to make clear which side is the fire brigade trying to save civilians and who set the flames in the first place.

Only Slim Majority of Americans Believes Hamas Is ‘Deliberately Striking Israeli Civilians’

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