Comments by "Sandy Tatham" (@sandytatham3592) on "Fireside Chat Ep. 194 — Do You Want to Understand the Middle East? | Fireside Chat" video.

  1. A comment from a recent Ben Shapiro video... "I'm a 31 year old Palestinian and have been living in Gaza for all my life. We're so scared right now and we want this to be over but a lot us (secretly, we can't say publicly) actually know Israel is in the right (yes, a lot of us here know Israel is not the one waging war). When we voted for Hamas more than 15 years ago, we thought they would let us have regular elections and turn this area into an amazing, democratic Palestinian land. But they regularly pay us massive money to rally on the streets and to tell the media Israel is the agressor and we badly need the money so we accept. Hamas officials told us that we have to stay in our work buildings when the Israel army warns us to leave before they bomb the buildings, if we don't Hamas will jail our families. We risk not moving in the hope that we don't get hurt so our families don't get jailed. We also get paid to hold fake funerals where we carry 'killed' children on stretchers in the streets (they're just pretending to be dead). What I'm trying to say is that what you see on the media is Hamas making us look like war victims, but really we are victims of Hamas who will do what Hamas says because of our desperation for money. We don't get aid even though apparently most countries say they give aid. We use to live peacefully with the Israeli's before Hamas controlled us and now we rely on Hamas to survive. Some of us have tried to escape to Israel but Hamas will also kill our family if they find out. We pray that one day Hamas will stop using all they money for rockets and terrorists and use its money for us, to build us parks and schools and hospitals and give us food. Right now I pray for the violence to stop." I can't vouch for this being a genuine comment from a Gaza resident but their YouTube channel was some years old and it looked very authentic to me.
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  2. I love Bassem Eid and I can vouch for what he said at 34:30 mins. "The majority of the Palestinians in Gaza want to know how to escape from Gaza to another country". Last month in Cairo I met a Palestinian man in my guesthouse. He was flying to Dubai to sell his beautiful Gaza land in order to relocate his whole family in Turkey. He said there is no future in Gaza under Hamas. He also spoke Hebrew and spent much of his time doing business in Israel. I'm not sure if he is permitted to 'sell' his land but I'm sure there will be an opportunistic UAE businessman who is happy to enter into some kind of agreement with him.
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  3.  @raz1616 : Fair enough. However some Gazans do speak English, and I've heard the same narrative from other Gazans who now live elsewhere in the Middle East or in safety in the West. Sure he might be exaggerating a few things (PTSD can have that effect on people) but we do know that video footage can be faked, and has been faked before for propaganda purposes. We also know that Hamas have been very violent against Gazans in the past, including keeping its citizens on the front line, or at least encouraging them to remain on the front line, even grooming children to be shahids, rather than evacuating them to safer areas near the Sinai border before declaring war on Israel. The discovery (by the UN) that Hamas has been maintaining arms caches in schools is clear evidence of blurring the lines between jihadis and civilians. Hamas have issued statements of their own executions of Gazan citizens. They've also carried out such executions in public, particularly where collaboration with Israel was suspected (though not proven) or for treason. It doesn't seem outlandish that families are also held to account for apostasy and/or treason/desertion by family members. The Arab/Islamic culture is one of honour and shame. Last month in Cairo I talked at length to a Palestinian man from Gaza who was staying in my guesthouse. He said life under Hamas had become increasingly unstable and untenable. As a relatively wealthy businessman, he was able to fly to Dubai, sell his land in Gaza, and relocate his whole family in Turkey. Natural attrition such as this will continue due to the fact that Hamas are corrupt and have little regard for civilians.
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