It has been eight and a half months into the war between Israel and Hamas, and we have seen 105 hostages released, seven hostages rescued and most of the Hamas battalions destroyed by IDF forces. There is much debate on whether or not the military campaign against the Gaza-run terror group has been "successful", yet the question nobody seems to have an answer to is what happens the day after. How do we truly eradicate Hamas when it is an ideology just as much as it is an established terror organization?
The Palestinian Center for Policy published a new poll, and their research shows us the deep support for Hamas in Palestinian society and that many civilians support Hamas's goals of destroying Israel. The study indicated that two-thirds of the Palestinian public continue to support the October 7 massacre, seventy-five percent of Palestinians are "satisfied" with Hamas's performance in the war and over half believe that Hamas is "the most deserving" of leading the Palestinian people. There has also been an increased demand for the resignation of President Abbas (who Western allies consider more "moderate"), with sixty percent support for the dissolution of the Palestinian Authority. Meanwhile, the Palestinian public expressed high support for armed struggle, and we reported a drop in support of a two-state solution. At most, eight percent of the Palestinian public holds Hamas accountable for their suffering.
If this is what we are dealing with, in what world could Israel truly eradicate Hamas?
These findings are not at all surprising, and they are consistent with the polls that were published three and six months ago. In some twisted world, however, when it comes to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, progressive activists disregard these factors. For every piece of evidence that indicates that Palestinian society supports terrorism and violence, the Western ultra-left will blame Israel and its military. The progressive left will ignore the propaganda and antisemitism that Hamas has fed Palestinians, which can easily be seen in their education system, even found in UNRWA's textbooks, as is the glorification of martyrdom and terrorism. For some reason, the cruel acts of October 7 and the years of terror campaigns that we saw since the second intifada, where suicide bombers deliberately targeted civilians and killed over 1000 people, are considered a legitimate form of resistance.
With a superficial understanding of the conflict, it is easy to assume that the only reason why Palestinians would commit such atrocities is because they were left with no other choice. In their minds, people could never act in such barbarity unless they were pushed to such a breaking point of misery. This line of thinking absolves Palestinians from their agency, and it ignores the research which proves that Palestinian terrorism is not mere desperate moments of insanity but a planned and organized, usually driven by deep-rooted antisemitism.
We saw the same level of dehumanization of Jewish people during the Holocaust, where "the day after" also had to be addressed. Post World War II, Germans went through a "denazification" process, where the Allied forces had to remove Nazi ideology, influence, and personnel from German society, government, and institutions. Crucial elements of the denazification process included removing leaders of the Nazi party and the SS from positions of power, completely disbanding organizations associated with Nazism and holding the Nuremberg trials in 1946. This model must be implemented in the case of Gaza and the West Bank in a post-war reality if we are ever going to see real peace. The leadership of Hamas must be removed entirely and put to trial, any terror-related groups and gangs must be eradicated, and the Palestinian education system must be reformed. Programs that promote coexistence and a two-state solution must be present in the education system, the media, and cultural institutions.
With the current Palestinian opinion polls, any idea of a realistic "day after" plan must address the radical and Islamist elements of Palestinian society. In addition, we in Israel, must appropriately address fringe members of our society, particularly the extremists in the settlement communities, who have been violent in areas of the West Bank.
Whether people like it or not, a two-state solution is the only possible solution. Almost 10 million Israelis are living in the region, and just over 5 million Palestinians and none of us are going anywhere. Instead of internalizing our painful histories and wanting revenge, we must find a way to move forward where both people can live independently in dignity and security. Therefore, having an honest conversation about the factors that contribute to extremism and how best to weed them out of society while acknowledging each other's existence is the only way we can ever see lasting peace in the region.
