Do people fully support Palestine?

[Dawk]

I read this article and the scales fell from my eyes a bit: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/feb/11/amid-the-ceasefire-wrangling-how-popular-is-hamas-in-gaza-now

I hadn’t realised that a majority of Gazans want a conservative Islamist state and the complete destruction of Israel to create an Islamic state covering the whole country (from the river to the sea I guess). They also support violence and even the sacrifice of their own lives.

I am appalled by the destruction and loss of life in Gaza, but having read this article I can’t understand why support for Palestine isn’t more caveated. Why are people waving flags and supporting Gaza so unconditionally? When you look at the polling described in the article it seems fairly clear that many/most don’t actually want peace unless it follows the complete destruction of Israel.

For me it’s a bit like supporting Iran. I would never wave the Iranian flag around because of what the country stands for. In this case I am horrified by the scale of destruction wrought by the IDF so support Palestine completely in that respect but I’d never wave the flag or chant the slogans.

If you consider yourself ‘pro-Palestine’, what do you think of the ideology described in the article?

I only had to guess that it had to be a supporter of Palestine that helped this appeal. And yes who paid for their legal representation?

Nah, its more that October 7th proved that Israel was right to understand that Hamas were trying to import the resources they needed to prepare for an attack, and October 7th proved the the Red Cross et al were wrong to try to stop Israel from protecting itself from attack.

I guess Israel knew its neighbour better than all those esteemed international organisations, who all lived in places safe from a Islamist terrorist neighbour intent on their destruction, did.

I'd be surprised if we saw many more successful attempts to use the Ukraine scheme by Gazans. Starmer said today that the government will change the legislation to close the loophole. It would probably just be a Statement of Changes, as that's the usual way to amend the Immigration Rules, and it can be done fast.

If you lived in Israel or Egypt I can promise you you would be in favour of the border restrictions that were in place. Because when you share a border with Islamic Jihadist terrorists ( and a depressing number of their civilian supporters) you would want things in place to keep you safe. They had an unfortunate tendency to come across the border when they could to blow themselves up in buses or restaurants. To use anything they could to build rockets etc. at the expense of their own people. There weren't restrictions in place because Israel was trying to be mean to the poor Gazan people. They were in place because they proved time and time again that their hatred of Jews was stronger than even their love of their own children. Gazan children deserve better too than being brought up in this hate. To have a proper childhood. I agree with the OP though....it seems there is a large proportion in Gaza who want to live under Islamic law so I'm not sure where the future lies but it can't be with Hamas in charge.

There is good reason none of their neighbours want them Egypt, Jordan, Libya, Saudi point blank won’t take them …U.K. needs to keep well clear…or we will have trouble on another level.

No Palestinian identity? That's laughable. The Palestinian identity, culture and heritage long pre-dates the modern state of Israel. Palestinians can recognise which part of Palestine someone is from just from the distinct pattern of the tatreez on the traditional dress just for a start.

I was simply pointing out that the participants do not have equal resources nor an equal ability to pull back. It is incumbent on those with greater resources to use restraint. Of course you are responsible if you pull the trigger for the damage caused. You can stop if you want to. This was true in both WW1and WW2 as it is everywhere. What was rained down on Palestine went past self defence. Don’t encourage it or excuse it. Work hard to find a way so that it never happens again.

That is true, seeing as how they supported and enabled them for so long

You needn't worry, they're staying right where they belong in their own homeland

I'm sorry but this is ridiculous.

It is not incumbent on those with greater resources to 'use restraint' . There is absolutely no logic behind this. Its incumbent on a country to use the force that is needed to protect itself and its citizens from those who have started a war against it. That's all. It is not incumbent on them to 'use restraint' that would continue to leave them exposed to attack. Its remarkable that, even after October 7th, you do not seem to grasp the threat that Hamas pose to Israelis.

Hamas have turned Gaza into a terrorist state and they started a war. Israel are under no obligation to leave Hamas in a position to attack its citizens again.

Israel have shown 'restraint' , as you put it, by telling Gazans to leave areas they were about to attack ( a courtesy obviously not extended by Gazan Hamas to Israelis on October 7th). That is why there are huge numbers of living Gazans returning now.

Israel was working to find a way attacks never happen again by forcing 12,000 Jews out of their homes in Gaza and leaving it entirely to the Palestinians. Hamas continued to gather what it needed to attack Israel, so Israel put in blockades to try to stop them getting what they needed for an attack, and look how Israel got condemned for that, and look to October 7th for how that turned out.

All you are doing is throwing out simplistic, vague entreaties to 'be nicer' safe in the knowledge that you do not have a terrorist who wants to murder you living just down the road.

So be more specific , what exactly is the 'restrained' way Israel had to eliminate Hamas, the Islamists terrorists dedicated to the genocidal eradication of all Jews and prepared to sacrifice their own citizens to achieve this?

@Bluewhitebox You could start by allowing food and medical aid into Gaza and providing the safety and resources for the people to begin rebuilding their lives.

Tell me you don't know anything about the nature of war without telling me you don't know anything about the nature of war 😬.

@dairydebris tell me you don’t know anything about the nature of peace without telling me you don’t know anything about the nature of peace.

My goodness!

Billions in aid has been poured into Gaza and was used to fund the infrastructure and arms needed to attack Israel. My God! This was being done, this was being done to help build Gaza into a peaceful, successful state and Hamas used this to prepare a war attack at a time of peace! Oh, and line with riches the Hamas Leaders living abroad of course.
Gazans needing medical treatment were being taken to Israelis hospitals - one of the Hamas fighters holding the hostages, his own family had benefited from this! Didn't make him peaceful though.
Israelis gave employment to Gazans, employment in the Kibbutz. There were Palestinians who used these positions to give intelligence to Hamas for October 7th.

All these things were being done to build up Gaza and to bring peace. And it didn't work. Hamas chose conflict instead.

How, even after October 7th can you still make counter-reality statements like the one in your post?!

As I said @Bluewhitebox
You could start by allowing food and medical aid into Gaza and providing the safety and resources for the people to begin rebuilding their lives.

Sure! Peace requires that we exceptionally aggressive, territorial and intelligent apes make rules ( which we call laws ) that allow large groups of us to live in close proximity. When base instincts cause us to break these rules society breaks down and peace is difficult to achieve. All of us are capable of breaking these rules to differing extents, it's part of being a human animal. It's the responsibility of government to ensure adherence to these rules.
Is that ok?

This is not only a ridiculous answer, its a deliberately dishonest one.

You were asked what Israel could have done to respond to a murderous terrorist attack, which would prevent future attacks, and your response is they should have let food and aid into Gaza and support them to build their lives. Even though Gaza was not short of food or aid or support after (or before) October 7th. But had had loads of this since 2005 and it had not stopped October 7th happening. So your answer is that in response to October 7th, Israel should have given more of the support and aid to Gaza that had failed to stop a terrorist attack?

That is not an intelligent response that you have given there.

Of course, I presume you are dishonestly trying divert from answering what the ' 'restrained' response Israel could have given after October 7th to stop future attacks, as you have no answer to this. Instead you are very evasively and dishonestly trying to divert to what you think they should do now, almost 18 month later. Even though, as I point out, Gaza had all that support before and it did not stop October 7th happening.

I think I was very clear on this point about 5 hours ago. Starting to work towards peace starts with shelter, food, healthcare, and safety.

All of this existed before October 7th. All of this was to be created when Israel moved thousands of Jews from their homes in Gaza in 2005.

You have a false narrative that the conflict is due to lack of food, shelter etc. If only there were enough food, and healthcare and housing, all these problems would go away. The fact that all of these things existed prior to October 7th, does not seem to cause you to pause and think that the (mythical) lack of these things was the cause of the conflict after all.

This is about Hamas and their supporters amongst Gazans who want to eliminate Israel and all Jews. Unless that attitude changes, there will never be peace.

The road to peace can only begin when ALL the hostages are released.

They had all of those BEFORE 7th October, but they still launched an unprecedented attack on people at a festival and at a kibbutz. So naturally having those things didn't prevent the terrorists from attacking or bring peace.

It is quite noticeable that all these self- styled peace lovers only seem to talk about what Israel needs to do, but never talk about what Hamas needs to do...

Hamas could have chosen not to start this conflict and could have ended it by laying down arms and releasing hostages at any time from October 7 onwards...

Hamas and Gazans apparently have no responsibility for creating peace. Hell, they don't even appear to need to refrain from launching bloody, murderous terrorist attacks.