Yes, Gazans appear to be moving away from Hamas. They do so because Hamas failed them, not because they disagree with the underlying ideology.
There were numerous plans from 1934 forward to kill Adolf Hitler. All failed, and the fuhrer concluded that his miraculous escape from death was a sign of his destiny to win. The early attempts were made so as to stop Hitler the fascist. The latter attempts were made to get Hitler out of the way in the losing war effort. The officers who were arrested and executed for the failed 1944 attempt on Hitler’s life in the Wolf’s Lair were not against the Nazi ideology or Hitler’s goals for Germany. Rather, they felt that Hitler was ruining the war. His refusal to allow for tactical retreats on the eastern front and his capricious firing of experienced generals teed off the Wehrmacht’s top brass. The officers hoped that by killing Hitler they could either save some of the army’s gains or negotiate a settlement with the Americans that would leave Germany intact.
When one compares the delirious crowds that greeted Hitler in the 1930s and early 1940s to the depressed post-war German population, he comes to a simple conclusion: the Germans did not change their thinking. They were just angry that Hitler failed to provide the goods. Hitler’s speeches and rallies were populated by huge, adoring crowds. They drank in everything he said about dealing with the Jews and the Bolsheviks and how England and the rest of Europe had to play ball by Germany’s rules. The German people were not opposed to his program and supported it as a mechanism for erasing the failures of World War I and the chaotic interwar Weimar period. Germany losing did not change their ideology; it just caused anger that they, the German people, put their money on the wrong horse. Through Hitler’s multi-front war-making and bungled prosecution of the war, their cities lay in ruins, millions were dead, and the Allies were poised to carve up their country, with half going to the detested Soviets.
There is much to say about the German approach to Hitler when looking at Palestinians in Gaza. One can find plenty of videos of hyper-ecstatic Gazans jumping up and down as vehicles with dead and wounded Jews passed through their streets. No, the entire population was probably not there. But the same was true in Germany. The throngs that one does see on the many videos recorded on that day show people thrilled that they had stuck it to the Jews, that they had brought home trophies and that there were lots of dead bodies on the other side of the breached security fence. If there was an anti-Hamas protest in October 2023, I must have missed it. The Palestinians, like their German predecessors, were drunk with the success of their military might.
Now, let’s fast forward to the past few months. There have been shown many individual Palestinians as well as larger groups either protesting or denouncing Hamas. “Hamas out!” “We hate Hamas!” and the like. Many saps in the media wish to point to these protests to show that Hamas and the Gazans are not one and the same, as if Hamas descended onto the population and took it over. This is a lie. The people think and talk like Hamas. As many have noted, not one Gazan risked his life to help a hostage—in contradistinction to many Europeans who hid Jews at risk of death. No, the protests and complaints are exactly like those of the Germans from 80 years ago: why did you lose? The people are not against the mass murder of Jews, the abduction of children, or continued warfare. No, their complaint is that they are losing, and in so doing, their homes are being destroyed and they are being moved around like a quarterback entering the transfer portal multiple times. The Gazans are angry because they bet on the wrong donkey.
Let’s imagine Germany fending off the Normandy landings or Hamas holding off IDF attacks. The people would be beyond elated. “We showed them!” “Our leaders are brilliant and are showing the other side who’s boss.” One would not see today some principled protests against what Hamas did and does. And it’s not just the risk of being killed. The Palestinian population is totally into what Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have been up to. How often have you heard a Gazan threaten an October 7th attack every year? How many Gazans joined the demented gatherings in which live and murdered hostages were returned to Israel? The vast majority of Gazans are religiously and ideologically aligned with the terrorists. Their complaint is like that of Fritz and Irma in 1945, namely that Hitler brought destruction instead of the promised Thousand Year Reich. The Gazans no more love Israel or want peace than they did when they lost their minds on the streets of Gaza when the defiled young women were paraded before the depraved population.
Israel and the U.S. have finally set up the food distribution program. Tens of thousands made their way to the Hamas alternative sites. They showed gratitude to the U.S. for the food, something that one Gazan described as the first during the war for which he did not have to pay for free humanitarian aid. Prying the people away from Hamas food control is a good step, and whatever weakens the murderers is good for Israel and humanity. That said, the Gazans will always hate the Jews. Whereas the U.S. succeeded in moving Germany and Japan away from their violent past, the same cannot be done with an Islamist cult. By building new economies and changing the structures of the two Axis countries, the U.S. was able to create countries that have been both economic successes and good allies for 80 years. In Gaza, because the Islamist hatred of Jews and Christians is embedded in the society, even were Gaza to become the next Macau with gleaming hotels and casinos, the locals wouldn’t go to bed at night before discussing how to attack Israel again. Their hatred knows no bounds, and since they see it as a scripture-based duty, they will never move out of their “hate the Jew” phase as Germany did.
When losing countries turn against their leaders, it is not because their eyes have been opened as to how evil their countries have become. They, like most of the world, simply don’t like losing. Interestingly, there was no large-scale anti-war movement in Japan as such an approach would have been considered as an affront to the Emperor, who was considered as a deity. I do hope that the war ends and that Israeli soldiers return to their families and lives. Gaza cannot be rehabilitated. Either the population needs to be substantially moved out as President Trump has proposed, or the locals will be left in place in a manner that they can no longer threaten or attack Israel. Like their Nazi predecessors who no doubt continued to regale one another with stories of the lightning conquest of Paris or seeing Moscow so close, the Gazans will go on for years talking about seeing dead Jews and dragging back hostages. They will lose but they will savor their killing of Jews—because that’s the only thing that is important to them.
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