U.S. Voters Support Israel over Hamas, Say Hamas Must Release All Hostages (Harvard-Harris Poll)
    The Harvard CAPS-Harris Poll conducted Oct. 1-2, 2025, asked U.S. voters: In the Israel-Hamas conflict, do you support more Israel or more Hamas? 75% said Israel, 25% said Hamas.
    84% of Republicans, 72% of Independents, and 68% of Democrats supported Israel. In the 18-24 age group, 55% supported Israel, while 45% supported Hamas.
    69% said the long-term answer to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute is for there to be two states: Israel and Palestine.
    In the Israel-Iran conflict, 79% supported Israel more, while 21% supported Iran more.

Greta Thunberg Branded a "Joke" after Israeli Hostage Photo Mix-up - Gabrielle Weiniger (The Times-UK)
    Greta Thunberg posted pictures of what she said were Palestinian prisoners, intending to highlight the plight of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.
    One of the photos was of Evyatar David, 24, an Israeli hostage who Hamas starved on purpose.
    David was last seen in a Hamas propaganda video, emaciated and exhausted, digging his own grave at the instruction of his captors.
    David's sister Yaela called on Thunberg to delete the post. "Every minute you are not deleting the post, you are becoming a bigger joke," she wrote.

Free Gaza's Palestinians from Hamas - Moumen Al-Natour (Wall Street Journal)
    Two masked Hamas gunmen came to the door of my Gaza City apartment in July and ordered me to report to al-Shifa Hospital for an interrogation. I had been active in the anti-Hamas protests that month.
    As they do in most Gaza hospitals, Hamas maintains a hidden torture dungeon at al-Shifa. I am familiar with this because I have been arrested by Hamas on 20 occasions and tortured more than once.
    I knew what complying with the gunmen meant: I would be lucky to leave only with broken bones.
    During the war, the number of dissidents murdered by Hamas's Arrow Unit enforcers has increased sharply, their bodies dumped in the street or delivered to the front door of their families.
    A few weeks earlier, Hamas militants tortured local journalist Ahmed al-Masri for joining the protests, breaking his feet and shooting him in the legs. They stabbed activist Uday al-Rubaie to death and hurled his body from a tower.
    I chose to take my chances by escaping the city, staying on the move in areas no longer held by Hamas.
    My hope is that this war ends with the end of Hamas's tyranny and the rebirth of Gaza as a place open to peace and prosperity.

Some Gaza Residents Speak of Hamas's Betrayal - Dana Ben-Shimon (Jerusalem Report)
    After two years of war, Gaza residents are struggling to grasp what their lives have become after Hamas's decision to attack Israel on Oct. 7, 2023.
    Many describe the current reality as a total nightmare. The feeling of betrayal by Hamas looms large.
    For 17 years under its rule, Gazans were told that "resistance" would protect them and serve the Palestinian cause. Sacrifice, they were told, was sacred and worthwhile. But now, many have begun to ask: Was it worth the price?
    "Gaza has turned into hell, Hamas led us to this hell. Nothing is left, people have lost everything they had, and for what? What did we get out of all this? Nothing but death and destruction," said F., 60, now living in a refugee camp with his family in central Gaza.
    "In the moment of truth, Hamas wasn't there to help the people defend themselves. We've been misled."
    "Failed and silly leaders have brought us to where we are today. We have to be honest. Attacking Israel was a big mistake made by Hamas....I just know that people now don't love Hamas."
    Hamas "still has some degree of presence in Gaza, though much less than before," said Omar, who fled with his family from Gaza City last month.
    "That means that people are still being cautious and avoiding messing with the group's militants or affiliates."
    "When you walk in the streets, you can hear people cursing Hamas. Some of those who supported the movement and expressed joy at the beginning are now saying that what Hamas did was insane."
    Other Gazans - including some on social media - still express support for Hamas's ideology and describe the Oct. 7 attack as "the historic heroic defeat inflicted by Hamas on the Zionist entity."
    Michael Milshtein, head of the Palestinian Studies Forum at the Dayan Center at Tel Aviv University, said, "Hamas is still embedded in the Palestinian public in Gaza, and there is deep sympathy for the group and its ideology."
    Though Hamas has been significantly weakened, Milshtein says "it is still the dominant power in Gaza."

Weary Gazans Have a Message for Hamas: End the War Now - Abeer Ayyoub (Wall Street Journal)
    Half a dozen people in Gaza reached by the Wall Street Journal all had a consistent message: Hamas should accept the U.S.-brokered deal.
    Alaa Khalil, 49, a mother of six who lives in a tent camp in Gaza, said in an interview she supported Hamas before the war. Her husband worked in the Hamas government's finance ministry and was detained by Israel when the conflict started.
    But Hamas's conduct during the war has led her to question the group's decision-making and leadership. "I don't feel like our suffering matters to them, I am very upset by their statements," Khalil said.
    Eman Badah, 31, said she wonders what Hamas thought would happen when it launched the 2023 attacks, why it didn't prepare and what it thinks could be gained from further fighting.

Lawful Protest Is Not a Permit to Menace - Catherine Perez-Shakdam (Jerusalem Post)
    On Yom Kippur, worshippers outside the Heaton Park Hebrew Congregation in Manchester were rammed and stabbed by a terrorist in a deadly rampage. Then within hours, in London's streets eliminationist slogans were chanted with gusto.
    Lawful protest is a jewel in the crown of British liberty. But a protest is not a permit to menace.
    It is not a day-pass to call for the eradication of a people or the dismantling of the world's only Jewish state. It does not entitle anyone to transform the public square into a theater of intimidation.
    Since Oct. 7, 2023, we have witnessed a marked rise in antisemitic incidents, the normalization of chants once thought beyond the pale, a creeping tolerance for placards and slogans that would, not long ago, have prompted a collective inhalation of horror.
    The reaction of the government is widely read as weakness. Radicals see that a state that asks nicely and retreats at the first refusal is a state that can be played.
    If your strategy is to plead with radicals and shrug when they refuse, you have mistaken governance for wishful thinking.
    The right to assemble is not the right to terrify; the right to speak is not the right to incite.
    Britain at her best is steadfast and decent, with a national instinct toward fairness that is one of the wonders of the world.
    However, fairness is not paralysis. The time for law, applied without flinch, is now.
    The writer, executive director of We Believe In Israel, is an associate scholar at the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs.

Austria Will Not Host Eurovision If Israel Boycott Is Approved - Hannah Brown (Jerusalem Post)
    Austrian Chancellor Christian Stocker announced that if there is a boycott against Israel's participation in the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest, set to be held in Vienna, then Austria's national broadcaster ORF should not host Eurovision, the website Eurovision Fun reported on Wednesday.
    The Eurovision Broadcasting Union (EBU), the body that runs the contest, recently announced that its general assembly will hold a vote in November on whether Israel can participate.
    Spain, Ireland, Slovenia, the Netherlands, and Iceland have announced they will not participate if Israel takes the stage.
    Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz previously said that Germany would withdraw from the contest if Eurovision were to boycott Israel.

"When I Tell Israelis I'm Not Jewish but Here to Help, Grown Men Cry" - Jamie Shapiro (Telegraph-UK)
    "The day after Oct. 7, I saw the people celebrating in Birmingham," says Gordon Biggerstaff, 61, a nurse from North Wales. "They were dancing and they were singing. I have never been so ashamed of my country."
    "I thought, 'These people don't represent me,' and I needed to do something about it myself." He immediately looked into volunteering in Israel and found an organization called Sar-El, which assists at IDF bases in non-military logistical roles.
    "I want the people in Israel to know that they are not alone, they are not ignored and there are others in the world who see their pain and are prepared to come into the water."
    Leigh Humpage, 64, who co-ordinates the volunteers from the UK, says they also reach out into the civilian population.
    "They help with all kinds of things, from painting nurseries to helping to rebuild shattered homes and buildings....Many help out on farms to help with the harvests."
    "One of our Sar-El volunteers is a 'medical clown,' helping to brighten up the lives of traumatized children. Others are carpenters, teachers and therapists who bring their skills to contribute to rebuilding and healing."
    Volunteer Keenan Simms says: "You walk into a coffee shop in Israel, and you tell people that you're not Jewish but you're here to help and you see grown men cry."