While we had seen other polls showing broad approval of Hamas' terrorist attacks in the Arab world, this one is especially interesting because it compares Egyptian attitudes of Hamas after October 7 with their historic disapproval of the group.
The turnround in Egyptian attitudes towards Hamas is stunning.
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The poll showed that Hamas' newfound popularity has not bled over to Hamas' allies. Egyptian attitudes towards the Muslim Brotherhood are worse than ever before - an overwhelming 87% disapproval rating. And 79% had a negative opinion of Hezbollah in Lebanon.
How to explain this?
Look at the answers to one other question: Over 70% agreed that "Iran, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and their other militia allies are actually unwilling or unable to help the Palestinians, no matter what they claim."
Egyptians think that Hamas is the only group that actually risks its members to fight Israel; the other groups are just blowhards. There is no bravery in lobbing rockets from a distance. That is why Hamas is so popular: its willingness for martyrdom in its zeal to murder Jews up close.
The poll also found that 94% of Egyptians don't believe that Hamas killed civilians on October 7. This is in line with Palestinian polls that showed that over 90% also don't believe that Hamas committed any war crimes on that date.
These results show the amount of cognitive dissonance necessary in order to maintain an antisemitic attitude. Hamas' own videos show explicit attacks on civilians but people who support Hamas cannot square those atrocities with their beliefs that Hamas is righteous and the only war criminals are Israelis. The only way to make it make sense is to invoke another antisemitic conspiracy theory: all the evidence of Hamas atrocities are Jewish lies.
