Former Israeli Defense Minister: ‘Naive’ to Believe Gazans Seek Peace, Oppose Hamas

Israel's Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, during a meeting with local residents in Mitz
AP/Ariel Schalit
Joshua Klein

Those who believe Palestinians in Gaza oppose Hamas and would reciprocate Israeli efforts for peace are “naive,” according to former Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who argues that Hamas “Nazi terrorists” have “massive support” from Gazan civilians.

In an essay published this week titled “Innocents in Gaza? Don’t be naive,” Israel’s former Defense Minister highlights the Gaza Strip’s support for the U.S.-designated terrorist group Hamas, particularly in the context of the brutal October 7 massacre  — the deadliest against Jewish people since the Nazi Holocaust — which saw the torture, rape, execution, immolation, and abduction of hundreds of Israelis of all ages, mostly civilians, and dozens of Americans.

The piece begins with Lieberman explaining how the unprecedented October attack “shattered” the hopes of “naive” individuals who had sought peace with the Palestinians.

“For years good people with good intentions believed in and promoted the idea of peace between us and the Palestinians. Naive people – and yes, it is fair to call them that – who believed with all their hearts in the idea of two states thought there were normal people who dream the same dream living in Gaza,” he writes.

“That dream shattered into pieces on October 7, 2023,” he added.

Involvement of Gazans in Attacks on Israel

He then noted how Gazans, once helped by Israeli residents, participated in the brutal massacre, turning against their own supposed friends and benefactors.

“After recovering from the initial shock of the horrific massacre and with the revelation of the evidence of the atrocities committed by the Nazi terrorists, there is no shadow of a doubt that among those who took part in the attack on southern Israel, provided the intelligence on the homes of the residents, and led the mob in the second wave of looting and destruction were Gazans who worked in the kibbutz communities they invaded,” he writes. 

These same Gazans, he noted, “earned a living and ate in the homes of the massacred residents, some of whom were the very residents who helped Gazans and their families when they were sick, and took care of transporting them from Gaza to Israel for life-saving treatments in Israeli hospitals.”

Contrast Between Peace Efforts and Violent Reality

Lieberman points to a notable peace activist who aided Gazans and was cruelly murdered, with no Palestinian outcry.

“The late Vivian Silver from Kibbutz Be’eri was one of those people who worked for peace and for the people of Gaza. She established aid programs for Gazans, made sure the workers were paid fair wages, transported the sick to hospital treatment and a few days before the massacre organized a peace rally in Jerusalem where Israeli women marched alongside Palestinian women,” he writes. 

“On Black Saturday, she was murdered with terrible cruelty by people on whose behalf she had worked for years, and no condemnation or expression of shock was heard from the residents of Gaza,” he added.

Widespread Support for Hamas

He then counters claims that Gazans refrain from condemning Hamas due to fear, highlighting “the scenes we witnessed every evening when our kidnapped were being transferred to the Red Cross and the testimonies of those who have returned from captivity,” which he argues “suggest otherwise.” 

The essay continues:

It’s clear that Hamas has massive support in Gaza: The frenzied crowd jeering and spitting on the abductees, the testimonies of Israeli children who say they were beaten by Gazans of all ages, and the demonstrations of joy and support for terrorists throughout Gaza testify to the cruelty of a populace that educates its children to hate Israel and is raising a new generation of terrorists and supporters of terrorism whose goal is the destruction of the State of Israel and all its citizens.

Collaboration with Terrorists

Lieberman refers readers to the ordeal of a former hostage kidnapped from the Supernova festival by the “bad guys,” as a case in point. 

The hostage, Roni Krivoi, “managed to escape from captivity and hide for a few days until Gazans caught him and returned him to his captors,” he notes. 

According to Lieberman, that is “likely the reason why the terrorists branded the legs of the kidnapped children with the motorcycle exhaust pipe in order to make it easy to identify them in case they escape.”

As further evidence of cooperation between the Palestinian population and Hamas, Lieberman points to Gaza’s Shifa Hospital, “where the hospital director and other senior doctors helped the terrorists hide hostages and turn the hospital into a haven for terrorists.”

“But it’s not only in hospitals that you find collaborators, it’s also in private homes of Gazans, including a reported case of an UNRWA employee, where hostages were held in terrible conditions,” he added.

Social Media Sentiment

This unfortunate reality, the veteran politician notes, is “also reflected on social networks in the Arab world and in Gaza, where an avalanche of posts are words of praise and wall-to-wall support for Hamas and the horrible acts of October 7th.”

Considering the previous points, he concludes the essay by questioning “where are those innocent people in the Gaza Strip hiding?”

Last month, Breitbart News reported on a poll showing significant Palestinian support for Hamas and its October 7 massacre — the deadliest against Jewish people since the Nazi Holocaust, which saw the torture, rape, execution, and abduction of hundreds of Israeli civilians — while nearly three-quarters favor the elimination of Israel, with the creation of a Palestinian state “from the river to the sea” in its stead.

In response, Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk said the poll “seems accurate,” in a post that triggered a slew of pro-Palestinian X users.

In October, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) asserted, “Anyone who claims to support the people of Gaza but not Hamas should remember that Gazans elected Hamas.”

“At some point, some will have to reconcile themselves to the fact that while many Palestinian civilians did not take part in the massacre, many almost certainly cheered it,” wrote Erielle Davidson, senior policy analyst with JINSA. “The savagery and rot that pervades the Hamas terrorist is not exclusive to the terrorists themselves. Same animating hatred.”

Conservative pundit Brigitte Gabriel shared what she termed the “sad truth” that the Palestinians in Gaza “mostly support what Hamas is doing,” and even those who disagree with Hamas “hate the Jews so badly — they are collectively antisemites.”

Hamas’ massacre received broad support from Palestinian factions across the board, with the Palestinian Islamic Jihad participating in it, the “moderate” Fatah expressing support, and the official Palestinian Authority (PA) pledging to pay nearly $3 million to the families of slain Hamas terrorists who executed the massacre.

Palestinian politician Major General Issam Abu Bakr, who served as governor of the Palestinian city of Tulkarem, expressed his belief in unanimous support for the attack, saying “I do not think there is a single Palestinian who does not support what happened.” 

A poll from March carried out by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, found that the vast majority of Palestinians — nearly seventy percent — expressed support for the creation of armed terrorist groups to attack the Jewish state.

A previous poll conducted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) revealed that a whopping 93 percent of Palestinians hold antisemitic beliefs.

Israel's Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman (R) and U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis (C) walk together after an honor cordon on April 21, 2017 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Photo by Jonathan Ernst - Pool / Getty Images)

File/Israel’s Minister of Defense Avigdor Lieberman (R) and U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis (C) walk together after an honor cordon on April 21, 2017 in Tel Aviv, Israel. (Jonathan Ernst – Pool / Getty Images)

In addition, numerous videos depict a supportive response of the Palestinian street to news of the October massacre.

As Breitbart News reported, as word of the attack spread, Palestinians at home and abroad were seen celebrating jubilantly.

Photos and videos uploaded to social media show Palestinian crowds greeting the returning executioners as heroes and burning seized Israeli cars in the streets of Gaza.

Others show Palestinians rallying, handing out sweets, and firing guns in the air.

Ordinary Palestinian civilians were not just seen celebrating the massacre, but actively participating in it, with full mobs captured on film pouring across the breached border to take part in the killing and raping of innocents, and the looting of their property.

According to IDF spokesman Jonathan Conricus, significant numbers of Palestinians unaffiliated with terror groups entered Israel and participated in the atrocities alongside the terrorists.

In addition, Gadi Yarkoni, the mayor of the Eshkol Regional Council, told the Free Beacon that the “second wave of Arabs who came into the country were just as cruel as the terrorists of the first wave.” 

“We saw that it was not only Hamas who came to slaughter us,” he added. “It was all the residents of Gaza, including people who worked in our kibbutzim.”

On Wednesday, American presidential historian Professor Gil Troy, slammed a speech by U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris at the COP28 Summit in Dubai, where she distinguished between Hamas and the Palestinian people. 

Criticizing the Palestinian people for broadly supporting Hamas and for widespread involvement in acts of brutal violence against Israelis, Troy suggests that the majority of Palestinians support the actions of Hamas, including the October 7 massacre and violence against Israelis.

He also contrasts the perception of Palestinians in Western countries, where they are often viewed as innocent, with the reality of being complicit in violence “they keep encouraging.”

The matter follows Hamas’ multi-pronged October attack that saw some 3,000 terrorists burst into Israel by land, sea, and air and gun down participants at an outdoor music festival while others went door to door hunting for Jewish men, women, and children in local towns who were then subject to unspeakable atrocities.

The massacre, which drew parallels to scenes from the Nazi Holocaust, resulted in more than 1,200 dead inside the Jewish state, over 5,300 more wounded, and at least 241 hostages of all ages taken, of which nearly 140 remain captive.

The vast majority of the victims are civilians and include dozens of American citizens.

Joshua Klein is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jklein@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter @JoshuaKlein.

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