A new survey conducted by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) reveals a troubling shift in the American public’s attitudes toward antisemitism, as well as a striking lack of understanding regarding the nature of the conflict with Hamas.

The ADL survey was conducted in the wake of several violent attacks on Jewish targets in the United States. These included the arson of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro’s home, the killing of Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, D.C., and a firebombing at a pro-hostage rally in Colorado — all by individuals claiming solidarity with the Palestinian cause.

The survey results are sobering. Approximately 24 percent of respondents said they believed these violent attacks were “understandable,” and the same percentage said they believed the attacks were staged to gain sympathy for Israel.

According to the ADL, approximately half of those who viewed the attacks as understandable also believed they were false flag operations. Perhaps most revealing, 38 percent of respondents said they believed such attacks would stop if Israel were to declare a ceasefire in its war against Hamas in Gaza.

The Israeli-Palestinian conflict does not fit easily into the moral categories many in the West instinctively apply. Within American academic and activist circles in particular, Israel is frequently cast as a colonial oppressor, and Palestinians as its indigenous, victimized subjects.

This narrative, now firmly embedded in liberal and woke elite discourse, leaves little space for nuance, complexity, or clarity. One may still hope that members of the public are open to reexamining their assumptions and engaging with the true nature of the conflict between Israel and Hamas — because the facts on the ground tell a troubling story.

On the morning of Saturday, October 7, 2023, thousands of armed terrorists led by Hamas broke through the border fence between Israel and Gaza, using explosive devices and bulldozers, after taking down the IDF’s observation equipment. Backed by a massive barrage of rockets fired toward Israel, convoys of terrorists, armed with machine guns, hand grenades, and RPGs, streamed into Israeli territory. They slaughtered 1,200 people and wounded more than 3,000 others in towns and kibbutzim across southern Israel. It was the deadliest day for the Jewish people since the Holocaust.

Most of those killed were civilians, including many children and babies, who were shot, decapitated, blown up, or burned to death. Hundreds of young people were also massacred and raped at a music festival, and Hamas seized around 240 hostages back to Gaza.

Equally disturbing is Hamas’ calculated abuse of the very people it claims to be fighting for. The organization routinely positions its military infrastructure — including weapons, command centers, and missile launchers — within and beneath hospitals, schools, and residential neighborhoods. These tactics are not accidental. They are designed to provoke Israeli military responses that produce civilian casualties, thereby generating international condemnation of Israel. In this way, Hamas turns its own population into both literal and symbolic human shields.

Hamas, which seized control of Gaza in 2007, is not a national liberation movement. It is a radical Islamist organization with a charter that explicitly calls for the destruction of Israel and the eradication of Jews.

The group rejects Israel’s right to exist and opposes any negotiated solution to the conflict. Moreover, its worldview extends beyond Israel, portraying the entire liberal democratic West as a hostile force to be resisted. This is not a matter of personal interpretation. It is a consistent and well-documented feature of Hamas’ rhetoric, actions, and foundational documents.

The ongoing plight of the Israeli hostages underscores this dynamic. During the October 7, 2023, massacre, approximately 240 individuals, including babies, women, children, and the infirm, were abducted from Israel and taken into Gaza. Today, around 50 remain in captivity, hidden away in underground tunnels, and Israel believes that at least 27 of them are no longer alive. Their continued captivity, in blatant violation of international humanitarian law, receives scant attention in many public discussions.

Their absence from the prevailing narrative reflects a troubling narrowing of public concern, where only certain categories of suffering are deemed worthy of recognition. A complete and honest accounting of this conflict must include them — not as an afterthought, but as an essential part of the war’s human cost.

Seen in this light, the conflict with Hamas is not fundamentally about land, nor is it a straightforward expression of Palestinian self-determination. It is a struggle between a sovereign democracy and a deeply entrenched militant regime that willingly sacrifices civilian lives, both Palestinian and Israeli, in pursuit of Jihadist ideological annihilation

Hamas is a hostile, powerful, and cruel enemy. It is not fighting for the freedom of Palestinians. It is sacrificing them in service of its singular mission: the demolition of the State of Israel, and the destruction of Western values.

It is legitimate to question whether those who hold the views reflected in the survey, those who find attacks on Jews “understandable,” who believe they are staged, or who imagine that Hamas is open to peaceful resolution, are likely to reconsider their assumptions. Even so, the survey serves a useful purpose. It exposes how far the conflict has shifted from a dispute over territory or governance to a battle over narrative. In this interpretive struggle, Israel is increasingly portrayed as a global pariah, stripped of historical, legal, and moral context.

One may only hope that the broader public will resist this automatic categorization and remain open to a more honest, and albeit painful conversation — one in which complexities are acknowledged, and empathy is not withheld from one side alone.

If segments of American public opinion now regard this sort of violence against Jews as “understandable,” it may be because this broader context has been obscured. When complex realities are flattened into simplistic narratives, empathy becomes selective and moral discernment implodes. Moreover, such responses reflect a deeper cognitive dissonance, one that confuses political protest with moral justification for violence.

Dr. Daniel Beaudoin is a senior lecturer in political science and crisis management at Tel Aviv University, and the executive director of the European International Society for Military Ethics.

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