1 in 10 American Jews Support Hamas

On October 18, Hamas supporters stormed the United States Capitol and rallied in the Canon rotunda against the Israeli campaign to stop the Islamic terrorist group. While many of the insurrectionists were Islamist and non-Jewish leftist activists, the event was linked to two veteran anti-Israel organizations: Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow.

There has always been a pro-terrorist fringe among American Jews exemplified by organizations such as these two, along with others such as J Street, the Israel Policy Forum, the New Israel Fund, Jews for Racial & Economic Justice, T’ruah and other anti-Israel groups. And while they have generally boasted more organizations than members, a new poll raises the question of what percentage of American Jews supports Hamas and the killing of Jews.

The answer in one poll is deeply troubling.

Cygnal polled Muslims and Jews in America. It found that 57% of Muslims believed that Hamas atrocities against Jews were justified. But a less widely reported result found that 11.5% of American Jews also agreed that Hamas was justified.

3.6% of American Jews “strongly agreed” that Hamas was justified while another 7.9% “somewhat agreed.”

While the vast majority of American Jews, 88.5% disagreed, there is a distinct minority of people who were born Jewish that supports killing Jews.

And supports Hamas.

Hamas Leader Ismail Haniyeh enjoys a 7.2% favorability rating among American Jews.

When asked if knowing that “Hamas is nothing but a proxy for Iran and is funded and supported by Iran. Would you be more or less likely to vote for a political candidate who supports releasing billions of dollars in frozen assets for Iran to use any way it chooses”, 10.8% of American Jews would be more likely to vote for such a candidate.

1 in 10 American Jews supports the murder of Jews. Not to mention the rape, torture, kidnapping and dismembering of Jews. That is the JVP, IfNotNow, J Street, T’ruah demographic.

Polls are flawed and Cygnal dramatically oversamples Reform who make up 44.7% of the poll, but only 37% of American Jews, and Orthodox and Conservative Jews barely make up a quarter of the respondents, but the poll likely does reflect some percentage of American Jews.

They are the ones who rallied for Hamas in the Capitol and who, like Anna Epstein at Boston University, can be seen tearing down the posters showing the kidnapped women and children.

Anti-Israel groups over the years have claimed that they don’t support terrorism. Even the IfNotNow and JVP rallies operate under the false flag of calling for a ceasefire. Their allies from J Street to JFREJ to T’ruah use similarly misleading language. Some even claim to be advocating for the hostages. This is often enhanced by theatrical performances inappropriately using borrowed Jewish rituals such as a shofar, a tallit and the recitation of Kaddish, the mourning prayer, for Islamic terrorists.

In reality, IfNotNow’s first statement after the Hamas rape, torture, kidnapping and murder of Israelis asserted that, “we cannot and will not say today’s actions by Palestinian militants are unprovoked. Every day under Israel’s apartheid system is a provocation.” It made no mention of Hamas, but only claimed that the “blood is on the hands” of America and Israel.

But what the poll really lays bare is the worldview of Hamas supporters with Jewish last names. It does so without any of the dishonest language, the equivocation, the changes of subject that form the essence of their anti-Israel arguments. Asked if they support Hamas, they do.

It’s that simple and it was always that simple.

There is a percentage of American Jews whose leftist politics are so extreme that they back Hamas and the mass killing of Jews. We don’t know exactly what percent it is, is it really 11.5% or 7% or 3.6%. What we do know is that members of this group routinely lie and mislead about what they believe. They talk about peace when what they’re after is war. When they advocate for a ‘ceasefire’, what they really want is the unrestricted ability by Hamas to kill Jews.

They are not just opposed to the policies of a “right-wing Israeli government” or any Israeli government, they have a favorable view of Ismail Haniyeh: the leader of Hamas, who had bragged that the Islamic terror group would win because it loved death while “the Jews love life more than any other people, and they prefer not to die”.

They aren’t actually advocating for a deal with Iran, they just want an end to all sanctions on Iran even if it supports Hamas and even in the absence of any actual deal to end its nuclear program.

What does the anti-Israel fringe of the Jewish community support?

Israel released a recording of a Hamas terrorist excitedly calling his parents to tell them, “Father, I killed 10 Jews! Check your WhatsApp! I sent you the photos! Father, I killed 10 Jews! I killed 10 Jews with my bare hands. check your WhatsApp. Father, be proud of me!”

How did we get to the point where any percentage of American Jews supports Hamas?

Another poll, from Harvard/Harris, found that 16% of Americans side with Hamas and 24% agreed that “the Hamas killing of 1200 Israeli civilians in Israel can be justified by the grievances of Palestinians.”

This was an opinion held by 31% of Democrats and 36% of self-described liberals. People with college degrees (29%) were more likely to support Hamas atrocities than people with only some college (21%). Urbanites (40%) were far more likely to believe that the murder of Israeli women and children was justified than suburban (17%) or rural (13%) residents. Those making $75,000 or more were more often Hamas supporters (33%) than those making less (19%) and blacks (33%), Hispanics (28%) justified the murder of Jews more than white people did (21%).

The poll didn’t assemble the percentage of Hamas support from urban (40%) liberals (36%) with college (29%) degrees, but it’s a good bet that it’s between a third and a half of them.

That also is a good description of a sizable percentage of American Jews.

A third of American Jews do not support Hamas, but when they are immersed in an environment that does, especially on college campuses, is it any surprise that some do?

When 21% of liberals admit that they side with Hamas, some Jewish leftists will do it too.

Move to a neighborhood full of Nazis, enroll your kids in schools where there are daily chants of “Heil Hitler” during lunchtime and students are taught of the greatness of the Third Reich, and the odds of your kids coming home goosestepping vastly increases. Even if they’re Jewish.

Jews in America have become part of a cultural community that has supported leftist terrorism for at least half a century. Some never abandoned their admiration for Communism, others saw the Marxist terrorists of the counterculture as noble idealists, and some now celebrate Hamas.

American Jews are much less likely to support their own killing, kidnapping and torture than the average liberal (36%), but as many as 1 in 10 may be willing to accept Jewish genocide as the price of social justice. In the early days of the Soviet Union, the Yevsektsia or Jewish Section, made up of people who were born Jewish, was the most ruthless in wiping out Judaism and Zionism. Today, IfNotNow, J Street and Jews for Racial & Economic Justice take up the banner.

The Hamas atrocities and the reaction to it are a reality check. Some Jewish liberals recoil in horror at the implications of the ideology of social justice, others double down and embrace it. They claim that they want peace, but the Cygnal poll shows what they really want is dead Jews.

(Editor's note: as bad as these numbers are, they're the best numbers of any U.S. group.)

Daniel Greenfield is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center. This article previously appeared at the Center's Front Page Magazine.

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