Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib

Geopolitics & MidEast; Pro-Palestine, anti-Hamas; Proud American; Gaza native; Director @rfpalestine; Member @CFR_org; Senior Fellow @AtlanticCouncil

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

In an op-ed for The New York Times, I argue that saving Gaza & its Palestinian people requires resisting Hamas, weaving in personal themes, addressing issues with the Left & "pro-Palestine" movement & proposing a vision for Gaza's future Transformation.
https://t.co/X4OCVETl8M

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

Today is a solemn moment to remember and honor the victims of 9/11 and recall the courage of those who fought back, helped one another, and refused to retreat in the face of terror, injury, or death. It is also a day to remember the countless people, including many Muslims and Arabs, who have been slaughtered by Islamist extremism and Jihadi nihilism, the very forces responsible for gruesome attack. Yet grievance‑politics revisionists keep excusing or normalizing terror by claiming we must “understand” the motives of the killers or by blaming the United States and the West for every cultural, religious, and political failure elsewhere. Today is not for that. It is for the victims and heroes of 9/11, who deserved none of what befell them. May God have mercy on their souls, and may the world finally be free of Islamist extremism and its violence. ❤️🇺🇸🕊️

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

My New York Times article against Hamas has deranged so many people that a literal Western white dude shilling and running interference for Qatar while living in Doha thinks it is a flex to call himself a "terror enthusiast" and demand to know why I can still publish, even though his attempt at Qatari-sponsored propaganda to discredit me and their beloved terrorist organization, Hamas, has failed to suppress my voice. Marc Owen Jones claims to be some sort of deep investigative type when all he does is spread anti-UAE propaganda, defend Qatar, and oppose anyone who shares divergent views, all under the guise of "fighting disinformation." Literal terror apologia is now fashionable among Qatari-paid influencers - that's how furious they are at the fact that the NYTimes published a piece critical of Hamas.

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

In my two years in Washington, I have encountered few figures as loathsome, incoherent, and inconsistent as Shadi Hamid of the Washington Post, a pseudo-journalist, pseudo-academic, and pseudo-intellectual who manages to be disliked by Arabs and Muslims as well as Israelis and Jews. Long known for apologetics for political Islam and the Muslim Brotherhood, Shadi opposed US efforts to designate the Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization and insisted it was a nonviolent movement. After the Arab Spring, he championed the appeasement approach that treated the Brotherhood, including its offshoot Hamas, as an aspiring democratic force. One of his signature claims is that Arabs and Muslims lack agency, responsibility, and accountability, which is why he wrote that after extensive work on democracy in the Middle East, he “couldn’t escape Israel’s role in suppressing Arab democracy,” and that the Jewish state is stopping Arabs from democratizing because it prefers dealing with authoritarian regimes. This is a familiar conspiracy theory among Arab nationalists and Islamists alike who insist Israel shapes the nature of dictatorial regimes across the region rather than acknowledging the failures of Arab political, religious, and social cultures.

In that vein, he is joining the cacophony of voices in the “pro-Palestine” industrial complex who are crying foul over my article in the New York Times that called for the removal of Hamas and holding it accountable for Gaza’s devastation and near annihilation. Shadi, like Mehdi Hassan and others barking online, rejects any notion that Hamas is responsible for Gaza’s ruin. He calls me a “fringe” Palestinian voice, because an Egyptian American supposedly knows Gaza better than I do, and because his low-grade thinking insists all Palestinians must conform to one set of views or be dismissed as “unrepresentative” by him or by an Indian Brit, an anti-Zionist Jew, or deranged diaspora activists.

If I walk into a bear’s habitat, provoke it, and get mauled, most people would say I triggered the incident. But if Hamas steals billions in aid, militarizes and radicalizes Gaza, destroys any hope for democratic development, launches futile wars that kill and wound tens of thousands, empowers the far right in Israel, carries out the worst single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust, and triggers the biggest war in contemporary Palestinian history, Hamas bears no blame. In Shadi’s world, Israel is responsible for everything; we can only blame Israel, the Jews, and Netanyahu; that is the only idea his tiny intellectual bandwidth can process.

And for the record, I do not casually call people who disagree with me terror enthusiasts. I reserve that term for pro-Hamas individuals and organizations, or in this case for Muhammed Idrees Ahmad, the Associate Editor of New Lines Magazine. This actual terror enthusiast led a global incitement campaign against me for a year, claiming that I caused the Israelis to “kill an Al Jazeera journalist” in Gaza. His lies produced direct threats from Hamas, “pro-Palestine” extremists, and actual jihadists. This malicious and dangerous slander caused me serious problems and was reported to the FBI’s Counterterrorism Bureau in Washington. Muhammed Idrees Ahmad was directly involved in inciting violence and revenge against an American citizen. I hope none of Shadi’s followers repeat that behavior and force me to file additional reports.

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

Hamas’s leader Sinwar warned Netanyahu about October 7? A new investigative piece by Haaretz has turned the world upside down overnight, but its claims are shaky, contradictory, and in several places simply implausible. It opens with the dramatic assertion that UAE President MBZ warned Netanyahu in September 2023 about Hamas preparing something violent against Israel, risking the destabilization of the region. From there, it veers into far more expansive claims: Israel-Hamas talks to “lift the blockade” through a prisoner swap were allegedly taking place, a supposed message from Sinwar to Netanyahu via UAE-based Palestinian strongman Mohammed Dahlan intermediaries threatened an “earthquake” if Israel didn’t proceed to make a deal with Hamas, and claims that after the 10/7 attack, the terror group offered the “unconditional” release of Israeli civilian hostages shortly after abducting them into Gaza. Here are some thoughts and reactions to the piece:

1. It is likely true that the UAE president warned Netanyahu about intelligence gathered by Emirati services and figures close to Abu Dhabi, including Dahlan, who had maintained contacts with Hamas for years before October 7 after the group reconciled with the controversial Palestinian strongman as part of its effort to counter Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Still, according to the Haaretz report, it appears the warning was nonspecific and sufficiently vague so as not to warrant any particular action. Just as Netanyahu reportedly disclosed his UAE visit during the US-Israeli war with Iran, angering Emirati officials, Abu Dhabi may now be returning the favor by leaking this information a month before a consequential Israeli election in which Netanyahu's political survival is at stake.

2. Israel was interested in a long-term truce with Hamas in Gaza. That was partially why it allowed monthly Qatari cash transfers to the terror group, issued 20,000 work permits for Gazans to work in Israel with plans to expand the program, and supported other economic initiatives aimed at improving conditions in the territory. However, the claim that the release of the two Israeli soldiers' bodies from the 2014 war and the two Israeli civilians held by Hamas would have led to the lifting of the blockade is simply not credible. The blockade was structured in a way that made its full removal impossible while a heavily armed terrorist organization with a vast tunnel network remained in control of Gaza. Hamas faced Arab, regional, and international restrictions and sanctions because of its militant ideology and record of violence; no temporary arrangement or “hudna” with Israel would have fundamentally changed that reality. As long as Hamas governed Gaza, a complete lifting of the blockade was never a realistic prospect.

3. The allegation that Hamas genuinely wanted to release the Israeli civilian hostages it captured on October 7 but was prevented from doing so by Israel or then-US Secretary of State Blinken is a false claim the group has repeatedly used to deflect responsibility. Hamas did not offer their unconditional release. As described in the Haaretz report, it wanted any release to occur through an intermediary who could shape the framework for subsequent hostage release negotiations, which by definition was conditional and difficult to reconcile with the chaotic aftermath of the attack. Hamas also adopted a broad definition of who qualified as a non-civilian hostage, often treating virtually any Israeli between 18 and 60, including women, as a soldier. If it had truly wanted to free Israeli civilians immediately, practical options existed. It could have coordinated with Egyptian intelligence and transferred civilian hostages to the Rafah border crossing and handed them over for safe return to Israel. Instead, Hamas quickly escalated its demands, murdered multiple civilian hostages, and held others for hundreds of days. The claim that it had no realistic way to release civilians shortly after their capture defies logic and raises a more basic question: if they were not intended as bargaining chips, why were they taken at all?

4. Approximately two months ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu halted progress on an Emirati-financed, Dahlan-influenced community planned for western Rafah in southern Gaza (beyond the Yellow Line), despite months of work by the Board of Peace and approval from Israeli military and intelligence officials. His last-minute reversal generated frustration among the Board of Peace, the UAE, and Dahlan. Given this context, the timing of the release of the Haaretz piece and references to Dahlan’s man "Coal Eyes" may reflect an effort by Dahlan and a coalition of Arab and Western actors to weaken Netanyahu ahead of a pivotal election that could shape both Israel's future and the broader trajectory of the Middle East.

5. This piece has been extraordinarily damaging, amplified across much of the “pro-Palestine” movement, the pro-Hamas camp, and circles eager to minimize Hamas's responsibility for the October 7 massacre that precipitated the worst catastrophe in modern Palestinian history. Many Israeli leftists, anti-Netanyahu journalists, and activists are so focused on defeating Netanyahu politically that they often portray him as the central culprit behind October 7, at times relegating Hamas, the actual perpetrator of the attack, to a secondary role. The article has fueled conspiracy theories that Netanyahu knowingly allowed October 7 to happen to justify a campaign of "genocide" in Gaza. More broadly, the debate surrounding the piece has further eroded any sense of Palestinian agency, responsibility, or accountability, with some even advancing the claim that Hamas effectively tried to warn Netanyahu about the attack but was ignored, forcing it to launch the attack – almost reluctantly.

6. The idea that Hamas would warn Netanyahu and sacrifice the element of surprise is extremely implausible. Before October 7, Hamas's capabilities remained fundamentally asymmetric, making the element of surprise essential to offset Israel's overwhelming military advantages. It is difficult to believe that Sinwar would have deliberately alerted Israel to the possibility of an operation of October 7's scale just weeks before launching it, particularly given reports that Hamas started planning it in 2022.

7. While ultimately a loathsome and criminal figure, Netanyahu was often defined more by caution than by hawkishness. Before October 7, many Israelis criticized him as indecisive and reluctant to take bold military action. He was grappling with unprecedented domestic unrest over his judicial “overhaul,” pursuing Saudi-Israeli normalization, trying to preserve the Abraham Accords, and struggling to hold together a fragile coalition that included far-right figures like Ben Gvir and Smotrich. Above all, he wanted to keep Gaza quiet while violence was rising in the West Bank and Iran's nuclear program remained a growing concern. That desire for calm at almost any cost likely contributed to the catastrophic negligence that preceded October 7, ignoring multiple warning signals, rather than a deliberate effort to let an attack happen and trigger a war to be used as a political pretext. His resistance to a full investigation of October 7 failures is more plausibly explained by a desire to avoid scrutiny of that negligence, potentially even criminal negligence, than by evidence of a broader conspiracy.

Consider the timing of this piece; consider who’s enthusiastically attempting to absolve Hamas of its responsibility; consider the illogical framing of some of the points being raised; and consider the possibility that while some nuggets of truth may exist in this exposé, there are forces at play very interested in manipulating perceptions of the pre-October 7 reality in which Hamas was deeply unpopular, hated, without options, and run by two psychopaths (Sinwar & Deif) who gambled away the lives and future of two million Palestinians.

[Josh Kraushaar @JoshKraushaar]

“Two months ago, 44% of American Muslims surveyed by Pew Research said they had a favorable view of Hamas, a number I believe understates the true level of support among Arab and Muslim diaspora communities. I cannot enter a mainstream Arab, Muslim or Palestinian American space and critique Hamas meaningfully without facing backlash or outright hostility”
https://t.co/uGWDUr4r3p

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

Hi Mehdi – good of you to unblock me on Twitter a month ago after blocking me 2 years ago for I don’t know what reason. If you recall, soon after dozens of my family members were killed in Gaza in Israeli airstrikes, I messaged you and asked for your help in elevating my voice and telling their story, but you ignored me completely. I see you’ve been talking to Peter Beinart, and I had wanted to respect that he reached out to me privately 2 days ago, but since he’s spilling the beans, I’ll take the liberty of telling you what I told him. I fail to understand why an anti-Zionist Jew, and in your case, an Indian-British man, see yourselves as the most suited arbiters or facilitators for such conversations.

I don't get the point of having a debate with other Palestinians with someone like yourself being a moderator. Why can’t you speak with me, and you’re welcome to speak with any of the others on your own time? I told your producer that I don’t want a debate, but rather a discussion and conversation, one that is elastic and doesn’t necessitate a “winner” and “loser,” but creates an opportunity for mutual learning and exploration. It seems that this has never been your interest, and your whole shtick is trying to ambush, dogpile, and play your clever, manipulative gymnastics to make a point, not make a difference.

The points of view that most of your supremely “representative” Palestinians guys want to yell and scream at me are staples in the "pro-Palestine" industrial complex, so ubiquitously stated and repeated as part of a stale and useless diet for all to feast on. Though I speak for myself, my perspectives are rarely heard even though they are so prevalent among so many Gazans, the majority of whom are singularly focused on Hamas and blame it for their misery, both contemporarily and historically. Therefore, I'm not interested in talking to your pals - what I would be interested in is having a 1-on-1 conversation with you about the New York Times article and other topics that we can raise relevant to Gaza’s conditions and pathway forward.

Please stop this elitist and horrifically pompous attitude that you, Peter Beinart, and countless others display as if you are the “truth tellers” when it comes to Israel and Palestine or as if you can proclaim who is a real or authentic Palestinian. Palestinians and their views/opinions are so deeply divided between Gaza, the West Bank, East Jerusalem, inside Israel, Arab & Muslim countries, and the Western world. The few Palestinians that you and Beinart love to salivate over are ultimately an irrelevant drop in the ocean.

If you want to kill a civilization, Mehdi, keep suppressing opposition and dissent like you’re doing – seemingly to gather likes and shares on social media. I hope you’ll change course.

[Mehdi Hasan @mehdirhasan]

Hi Ahmed, if you're such a representative and authentic voice of Gaza, why have you repeatedly turned down opportunities to debate your views, and your op-ed, on camera, with multiple other Palestinian activists and journalists from Gaza, including Christian Palestinians who hate Hamas? What are you afraid of?
(I think we all know...)

[Hussain Abdul-Hussain @hahussain]

Mehdi destroys the journalism profession. He wants every article written about Gaza to include Israel, because to him, that’s how journalism works. Any introspection by a native Gazan on Gaza, seeking change and improvement from within, is dismissed by the imperial alien Mehdi (in the name of cross national political Islam, of course).

[Ammi Hirsch @AmmiHirsch]

Important and courageous piece. A must read.

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

@AngerHeSmiles It doesn't matter how much or how little I criticize or blame Israel; if you don't 100% bow down to the mob and comply, you're still a "pro-genocide" Zionist, Mossad, illegitimate, racist, anti-Palestine ghoul. There's no establishing common ground; you're either "in" or "out"🤷‍♂️

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

In a new opinion piece for the Forward, How Hamas still holds Gaza captive, I describe the stalemate in Gaza, Hamas's vile criminality, the dehumanization of Gazans, the normalization of Hamas's narratives and offer a plea to the "pro-Palestine" community.
https://t.co/UyH7ycVEdv

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

I gift this piece to Mehdi Hassan, Hamas's lawyer Ramy Abdu, Wahajat Ali, anti-Zionist “heroes” like Zachary Foster, terror enthusiasts like Muhammad Idrees Ahmed at New Line Magazine, the Middle East Bureau Chief of the Los Angeles Times, so-called academics and journalists, and oracles of the "pro-Palestine" industrial complex. May your reading comprehension, logical argumentation, rejection of Hamas's terror, acknowledgment of Palestinian agency even while recognizing Israel’s culpability, and actual care for the Palestinian people improve and evolve.

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

An excerpt from "To Save Gaza, Resist Hamas":

While many play verbal gymnastics to mask support for Hamas, or resist calls to denounce them, the rhetoric makes that support clear. Efforts by university administrators, the media or members of the public to push back against this devolution by pro-Palestinian activists were met with cries of censorship. Despite this obfuscation, the boundary between solidarity with the Palestinian people and endorsement of their Palestinian oppressors dissolved.

As the horrors continued, the people of Gaza made it clearer, despite repression from Hamas, that they were disgusted with the group and wanted it out. There were several rounds of anti-Hamas protests during the war calling for the group to stop the disaster it began, to leave Gaza and release the hostages. Opposition to Hamas’s torture, extremism and failed governance has been strong and present for years. There were mass protests against the group in 2023 before Oct. 7, and in 2019 and 2017, sometimes under the banner of “We want to live.” Hamas brutally suppressed those demonstrations.

The people of Gaza clearly did not matter to those claiming to champion Palestinian lives. Two months ago, 44 percent of American Muslims surveyed by Pew Research said they had a favorable view of Hamas, a number I believe understates the true level of support among Arab and Muslim diaspora communities. I cannot enter a mainstream Arab, Muslim or Palestinian American space and critique Hamas meaningfully without facing backlash or outright hostility.

Hamas is now facing a humiliating defeat. Despite Israeli rejection of the initial phased disarmament framework, Hamas acquiesced to the Board of Peace’s demands. All the devastation was for nothing. Large segments of the pro-Palestinian community and Western left bet on a losing horse and embraced a rotten resistance narrative now invalidated by Hamas itself.

The last thing Palestinians need is more denial from the left. The Palestinian national project has a rare chance to evolve toward nation-building, peace and coexistence alongside a Jewish Israel that is not about to be exterminated. Chants of “from the river to sea” and the like are destructive conceits.

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

In an op-ed for The New York Times, I argue that saving Gaza & its Palestinian people requires resisting Hamas, weaving in personal themes, addressing issues with the Left & "pro-Palestine" movement & proposing a vision for Gaza's future Transformation.
https://t.co/X4OCVETl8M

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

- @nikitabier @elonmusk isn't it time that anonymity is no longer afforded to big accounts engaged in liberate and willful defamation, malice, and disinformation, with hundreds of thousands of followers being incited to violence and act against a real life person? Please end this

[Jesse Singal @jessesingal]

I understand that there are real tradeoffs here but for a post like this, referencing a real-life person's real-life name, I don't understand the case for allowing pseudonymity to provide a total shield against defamation claims.

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

A bizarre alliance to shield Hamas? Zachary Foster, one of the biggest clowns and least informed or compelling commentators in the Israel and Palestine space, and a living demonstration of how “anti-Zionism” has devolved into cultism, launched into a hate- and insult-filled tirade against me after I published an op-ed in The New York Times. He is frothing at the mouth with deranged language and rage, regurgitating incoherent talking points to say that Hamas are the valiant, amazing angels of reasonable compromise, and Israel is the evil root of all ills in Gaza; the predictable low-grade commentary one has come to expect from unhinged oracles of the “pro-Palestine” industrial complex.

This is especially true of certain Jews who now express a violent rebellion against Zionism and Israel, due to feelings of guilt or “they lied to me at summer camp” vibes that many anti-Zionist Jews frequently express. Hilariously, the post was immediately reposted by Hamas’s chief lawyer in Europe, Ramy Abdu, who started the fake “EuroMed Monitor for Human Rights,” and another voice strangely obsessed with shielding Hamas from accountability and blame for Gaza’s destruction and the devastation of Palestinian national aspirations and hopes. Isn’t it ironic: an anti-Zionist Jew, a Hamas lawyer, and a firebrand in journalism, all in a furious frenzy to delegitimize me and my arguments – and ultimately, protect Hamas.

[Joe Scarborough @ScarboroughNow]

“Hamas, from its inception, behaved like a mob of gangsters, brutalizing Palestinian women who violated its fanatic sense of morality, torturing and killing those who were suspected of opposing them and carrying out grisly suicide attacks against Israeli civilians, which empowered the extremist right in Israel, which seized the opportunity to destroy hopes of a new Palestinian future.”
https://t.co/l5ZWvizsYG

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

The Nazification of the so‑called “pro-Palestine” movement is no exaggeration. Large segments of this conglomerate have turned what should be a moral cause into an exceptionally hateful, racist, antisemitic, homophobic, and toxic ecosystem of low‑information activists, journalists, academics, and online personalities. Since my New York Times opinion piece, “To Save Gaza, Resist Hamas,” I have been targeted by a global smear campaign driven by Hamas, “pro-Palestine” fascists, antisemites, racists, and deeply disturbed individuals with hundreds of thousands of followers.

They have circulated AI‑generated images and fabricated posts claiming I am Jewish, an Epstein‑connected agent blackmailed by Mossad, a closeted gay man, and a paid influencer funded by Israel (I am none of those things, in case you are curious). This is happening at the same moment other corners of the “pro-Palestine” industrial complex are calling a Black member of Congress a “monkey” and a “boy.” Add to that the meltdown among supposed journalists, academics, and influencers who clearly did not read the op‑ed and reacted only to the title, furious that I criticized Hamas, their favorite “resistance” Islamist fascist group in Gaza, or that I refused to place all blame for the coastal enclave’s problems on Israel.

The backlash actually proves my central argument in this piece. Many in the “pro-Palestine” industrial complex refuse to engage with complexity around Gaza, Hamas, and Palestinian agency and responsibility, even within the reality of Israel’s overwhelming power advantage. By personalizing their reactions and resorting to insults instead of substance, including my explicit critique of Israeli policies, they are doing exactly what I argue must change. Palestinians and their allies can criticize Israel as much as they want, but fantasies about Israel’s destruction are neither moral nor pragmatic. Most critically, no one holds a monopoly on what counts as a legitimate Palestinian viewpoint. Palestinians are diverse, their opinions are deeply fragmented, and many in Gaza are furious with Hamas’s narratives and actions, a reality ignored by externally based Palestinians and non-Palestinians in the “pro-Palestine” industrial complex.

It is time to delegitimize, call out, resist, and dismantle the current “pro-Palestine” movement and build an entirely new apparatus that rejects the hateful, bigoted, racist, homophobic, Jihadi, violent, and antisemitic voices that have become mainstream within this failed environment.

[Jacob Ben-David Linker 🇺🇸🕎🇺🇸✡️🇺🇸🕎🇺🇸 @JacobALinker]

Hamas was a big part of why Israelis over time became more and more averse to leaving the West Bank though.

Hamas said "if you withdraw from territory, we will use it to try and kill you" and Israelis believed them.

[Casey Babb @DrCaseyBabb]

This guy is the Middle East bureau chief for the @latimes. Christ almighty. It’s incredible how many members of the press sound more like activists than they do journalists. What’s more is how many of these charlatans get upset by the thought of Hamas being defeated.

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

@ShawnEni @mehdirhasan https://t.co/k3KGRwjoZn

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

Imagine [hopefully] reading a piece that calls for Gaza to become the pride and joy of the Palestinian people and a hub of compelling Palestinian national identity by rejuvenating the territory, embracing peace, and rejecting a terror organization that admitted to refusing Gaza development offers worth billions, including an airport and seaport, only to proclaim that the op-ed is "pro-genocide." And how was this brilliant conclusion reached? Because the article I published in The New York Times didn't do the ubiquitous "everything has to be Israel's fault" that seems to be the only line of thinking within the supposed "pro-Palestine" camp.

Speak to Palestinians in Gaza who aren’t Hamas or making content for the “pro-Palestine” community abroad, and you hear the same thing again and again. They describe, plainly and without theatrics, how Hamas halted Gaza’s development and crippled the broader Palestinian national project since its founding in 1987. They do not need to mention Israel in every sentence to sound authentic to outsiders, including other Palestinians or non-Palestinians alike. They simply recount their lived reality. For Gazans, Hamas is the central problem. There were no Israeli soldiers inside Gaza before October 7. The blockade that everyone loves to speak about was imposed after Hamas’s cross‑border abduction of an Israeli soldier in June 2006 and tightened after the group’s violent takeover of the territory on June 14, 2007. From that point forward, Hamas massively built tunnels, fired rockets, smuggled weapons, waged repeated rounds of conflict, and declared its intent to “destroy” Israel, while turning Gaza into a fortress of armed “resistance” that got Gaza destroyed, tens of thousands killed, millions displaced, and wasted billions of dollars. Hamas imposed punishing taxes on Gazans to fund its terror; stole diesel from Gaza’s only power plant and caused chronic power outages; suppressed women’s freedoms; blocked travel for anyone it disliked; and routinely killed, tortured, jailed, beat, and humiliated countless Gazans.

Research the political and cultural divides between Gaza and the West Bank, and you quickly see how many Gazans resent West Bankers for cheering Hamas and October 7. These dynamics are complex, real, and central to understanding Palestinian politics, yet they are brushed aside or overlooked to satisfy low‑information audiences who consume the toxic narratives produced by the "pro-Palestine" industrial complex. Some people are simply uninformed. Some are unsophisticated. And then there are those who know exactly what they are doing and deliberately twist, manipulate, and distort reality to manufacture ignorance and maintain obedience and Orwellian-grade compliance among the crowds.

[Ahmed Fouad Alkhatib @afalkhatib]

Imagine [hopefully] reading a piece that calls for Gaza to become the pride and joy of the Palestinian people and a hub of compelling Palestinian national identity by rejuvenating the territory, embracing peace, and rejecting a terror organization that admitted to refusing Gaza development offers worth billions, including an airport and seaport, only to proclaim that the op-ed is "pro-genocide." And how was this brilliant conclusion reached? Because the article I published in The New York Times didn't do the ubiquitous "everything has to be Israel's fault" that seems to be the only line of thinking within the supposed "pro-Palestine" camp.

Speak to Palestinians in Gaza who aren’t Hamas or making content for the “pro-Palestine” community abroad, and you hear the same thing again and again. They describe, plainly and without theatrics, how Hamas halted Gaza’s development and crippled the broader Palestinian national project since its founding in 1987. They do not need to mention Israel in every sentence to sound authentic to outsiders, including other Palestinians or non-Palestinians alike. They simply recount their lived reality. For Gazans, Hamas is the central problem. There were no Israeli soldiers inside Gaza before October 7. The blockade that everyone loves to speak about was imposed after Hamas’s cross‑border abduction of an Israeli soldier in June 2006 and tightened after the group’s violent takeover of the territory on June 14, 2007. From that point forward, Hamas massively built tunnels, fired rockets, smuggled weapons, waged repeated rounds of conflict, and declared its intent to “destroy” Israel, while turning Gaza into a fortress of armed “resistance” that got Gaza destroyed, tens of thousands killed, millions displaced, and wasted billions of dollars. Hamas imposed punishing taxes on Gazans to fund its terror; stole diesel from Gaza’s only power plant and caused chronic power outages; suppressed women’s freedoms; blocked travel for anyone it disliked; and routinely killed, tortured, jailed, beat, and humiliated countless Gazans.

Research the political and cultural divides between Gaza and the West Bank, and you quickly see how many Gazans resent West Bankers for cheering Hamas and October 7. These dynamics are complex, real, and central to understanding Palestinian politics, yet they are brushed aside or overlooked to satisfy low‑information audiences who consume the toxic narratives produced by the "pro-Palestine" industrial complex. Some people are simply uninformed. Some are unsophisticated. And then there are those who know exactly what they are doing and deliberately twist, manipulate, and distort reality to manufacture ignorance and maintain obedience and Orwellian-grade compliance among the crowds.