A cornerstone of Palestinian nationalist rhetoric is the concept of sumud, or “steadfastness.” In essence, sumud means that Palestinians will not give up their commitment to eradicating Israel and returning to their ancestral homes within the pre-1967 borders—no matter how much time elapses, no matter how much they suffer in the meantime, and no matter how many battles with the IDF they lose. Avraham Shalev proposes a humanitarian way to break to the self-perpetuating myth of sumud:

Despite sumud’s propagation by Palestinian nationalists, the facts show that Gazans overwhelmingly yearn to escape Hamas’s failed and repressive rule. According to a survey carried out before the outbreak of the war by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, 44 percent of Gazan youth between eighteen and twenty-nine were considering emigrating from the Strip. Nearly a third (31 percent) of the total population considered emigration.

Recently revealed documents captured from Hamas’s Khan Yunis Brigade show that Hamas considers emigration a serious threat to its rule. The terror group has carried out an ideological campaign warning young people against emigrating, claiming that this would be a betrayal of Islamic values and the Palestinian cause.

Currently, the international community colludes with Hamas to keep Palestinians trapped in Gaza. However, the fact of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians choosing to abandon Gaza would fatally undermine sumud and Palestinian nationalism. . . . By embracing defeat, Palestinian society might rebuild itself along peaceful lines and accommodate itself to Israel’s existence.

Addressing a recent meeting of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Central Committee, Mahmoud Abbas criticized Hamas more sharply than he has previously (at least in public), calling them “sons of dogs.” The eighty-nine-year-old Palestinian Authority president urged the terrorist group to “stop the war of extermination in Gaza” and “hand over the American hostages.” The editors of the New York Sun comment:

Mr. Abbas has long been at odds with Hamas, which violently ousted his Fatah party from Gaza in 2007. The tone of today’s outburst, though, is new. Comparing rivals to canines, which Arabs consider dirty, is startling. Its motivation, though, was unrelated to the plight of the 59 remaining hostages, including 23 living ones. Instead, it was an attempt to use an opportune moment for reviving Abbas’s receding clout.

[W]hile Hamas’s popularity among Palestinians soared after its orgy of killing on October 7, 2023, it is now sinking. The terrorists are hoarding Gaza aid caches that Israel declines to replenish. As the war drags on, anti-Hamas protests rage across the Strip. Polls show that Hamas’s previously elevated support among West Bank Arabs is also down. Striking the iron while it’s hot, Abbas apparently longs to retake center stage. Can he?

Diminishing support for Hamas is yet to match the contempt Arabs feel toward Abbas himself. Hamas considers him irrelevant for what it calls “the resistance.”

[Meanwhile], Abbas is yet to condemn Hamas’s October 7 massacre. His recent announcement of ending alms for terror is a ruse.

Abbas, it’s worth noting, hasn’t saved all his epithets for Hamas. He also twice said of the Americans, “may their fathers be cursed.” Of course, after a long career of anti-Semitic incitement, Abbas can’t be expected to have a moral awakening. Nor is there much incentive for him to fake one. But, like the protests in Gaza, Abbas’s recent diatribe is a sign that Hamas is perceived as weak and that its stock is sinking.