You Can’t Make This Stuff Up
Yasser Arafat, who led hundreds of terrorist attacks against Jews, is the most trusted personality among Palestinian Authority Arabs even though he died nearly five years ago, according to a new poll conducted by the Jerusalem Media & Communications Center.
Answers to the open-ended question, “Which Palestinian personality do you trust the most?” also revealed that de facto Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh is more popular than PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. In third place is Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life terms in an Israeli prison for involvement in several terrorist attacks that killed dozens of Israelis.
Arafat was more trusted than Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas minister and trailed behind Khaled Mashaal, the Syrian-based leader of the Hamas terrorist movement, by less than one percent.
PA analyst Wafa Amr, based in Ramallah, said that support for Hamas now is higher in Judea and Samaria than it is in Gaza, according to a report published in the London Times.
I can speculate about why support for Hamas is higher in Judea and Samaria than in Gaza. The Palestinians living in Gaza have lived under Hamas for over two years. They have been exposed to brutality and deprivation at the hands of their leadership. When Hamas took over Gaza initially, in the summer of 2007, they began by throwing Fatah members off the roofs, murdering them in front of their children, and other friendly gestures. They also have a habit of stealing food shipments meant for ordinary Gazans. My guess is that this information never quite made it to the Palestinians in Judea and Samaria, but the cheery PR about how Hamas is a public service organization did reach them.
- Aggie