Poll: Palestinians in Gaza Support Rocket Fire and Abbas

As the retrospectives begin, dissecting fifty days of fighting in the Gaza Strip, a new poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion while the fighting was still raging shows 88.9% of Gazans supported Hamas’ campaign of rocket fire into Israel. 75% of those surveyed believe that Palestinian deterrence was boosted by the seven week siege. A significant result was the finding that more than half of the Hamas-ruled Gazan population supports Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas – 54% saying they were satisfied with his performance during the war with only 38% feeling otherwise.  For Abbas, the result portends well for the upcoming elections. Despite the animosity of Cairo’s new government toward all Muslim Brotherhood-related entities including Hamas, the people of Gaza feel that Egypt is the Arab country that “best backed the Palestinian Resistance [read Hamas]” during the fighting with Israel. Egypt outpolled Hamas benefactors Qatar, Iran and Turkey as Gaza’s “best friend.”