‘Hamas is very unpopular on the West Bank now’?

Biden’s pronouncement is like saying that the oceans are a lot less wet now

Where does he get his information? It’s total nonsense.

At times, POTUS was rambling words I couldn’t make sense of or lost his train of thought. (‘Anyway.’) Mostly, he mixed wisdom with nonsense. He made a dual impression on me, that, largely, he knows what he’s talking about, and sometimes, he just blabbed. He was wise enough to avoid saying numbers because he’s shown he makes them up because he has no idea anymore. Back to his puzzling statement about the West Bank.

Biden verbatim: “And if you’ve noticed—you know better than most—there is a growing dissatisfaction IN [sic], on the West Bank from the Palestinians about Chamas. Chamas is not popular now.”

Well, any poll about political opinion on the West Bank can’t be believed, just like in Gaza, Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, Turkey, Jordan, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, or any other country that lacks freedom of assembly, freedom of a diverse press, free speech, equality for the law, human rights organizations, check and balances, and verification of the government.

If a poll says something, either the pollsters will be found dead soon, or it says exactly what the leadership wants. But these polls are the best we have. I don’t think Biden has other sources.

With this in mind: West Bank PA polling: March 2022 and June 2024.

I looked at a dozen broadcasts of the much-anticipated press conference that had commentators, and none of them mentioned this blooper. It was toward the end so, everyone must have been too tired to catch it.

But famous CNN fact checker Daniel Dale, of course, caught the blunder.

What you could say for years already is that if Abbas would allow for elections, he would come out completely unpopular, and Chamas would win by a landslide. But now, Abbas wants AP mass murderer Barghouti out of jail (Heaven forbid) so this PA poll says that he’s now the most popular leader. But Chamas would still get the most votes and is adored for Oct 7.

True is that thanks to Chamas, Palestinian identity is much less popular among Muslim Israelis. But how is that going to help with the war in Gaza?

Biden also announced Zelensky as Putin, but what was new was that he noticed and corrected himself and indicated he was sorry for the gaffe.

About the Author

MM is a prolific and creative writer and thinker, previously a daily blog contributor to the TOI. He often makes his readers laugh, mad, or assume he's nuts—close to perfect blogging. He's proud that his analytical short comments are removed both from left-wing and right-wing news sites. None of his content is generated by the new bore on the block, AI. * As a frontier thinker, he sees things many don't yet. He's half a prophet. Half. Let's not exaggerate. Or not at all because he doesn't claim G^d talks to him. He gives him good ideas—that's all. MM doesn't believe that people observe and think in a vacuum. He, therefore, wanted a broad bio that readers interested can track a bit what (lack of) backgrounds, experiences, and educations contribute to his visions. * This year, he will prioritize getting his unpublished books published rather than just blog posts. Next year, he hopes to focus on activism against human extinction. To find less-recent posts on a subject XXX among his over 2000 archived ones, go to the right-top corner of a Times of Israel page, click on the search icon and search "zuiden, XXX". One can find a second, wilder blog, to which one may subscribe too, here: https://mmvanzuiden.wordpress.com/ or by clicking on the globe icon next to his picture on top. * Like most of his readers, he believes in being friendly, respectful, and loyal. However, if you think those are his absolute top priorities, you might end up disappointed. His first loyalty is to the truth. He will try to stay within the limits of democratic and Jewish law, but he won't lie to support opinions or people when don't deserve that. (Yet, we all make honest mistakes, which is just fine and does not justify losing support.) He admits that he sometimes exaggerates to make a point, which could have him come across as nasty, while in actuality, he's quite a lovely person to interact with. He holds - how Dutch - that a strong opinion doesn't imply intolerance of other views. * Sometimes he's misunderstood because his wide and diverse field of vision seldomly fits any specialist's box. But that's exactly what some love about him. 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When he can, he loves to write encyclopedic overviews. He doesn't expect his readers to agree. Rather, original minds should be disputed. In short, his main political positions are among others: anti-Trumpism, for Zionism, Intersectionality, non-violence, anti those who abuse democratic liberties, anti the fake ME peace process, for original-Orthodoxy, pro-Science, pro-Free Will, anti-blaming-the-victim, and for down-to-earth, classical optimism, and happiness. Read his blog on how he attempts to bridge any tensions between those ideas or fields. * He is a fetal survivor of the pharmaceutical industry (https://diethylstilbestrol.co.uk/studies/des-and-psychological-health/), born in 1953 to his parents who were Dutch-Jewish Holocaust survivors who met in the largest concentration camp in the Netherlands, Westerbork. He grew up a humble listener. It took him decades to become a speaker too, and decades more to admit to being a genius. But his humility was his to keep. 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He had three times 9-out-of-10 for Dutch at his high school finals but is spending his days communicating in English and Hebrew - how ironic. G-d must have a fine sense of humor. In case you wonder - yes, he is a bit dyslectic. If you're a native English speaker and wonder why you should read from people whose English is only their second language, consider the advantage of having an original peek outside of your cultural bubble. * To send any personal reaction to him, scroll to the top of the blog post and click Contact Me. * His newest books you may find here: https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AMoshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&s=relevancerank&text=Moshe-Mordechai%2FMaurits+van+Zuiden&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1