During the period of World War II, especially around 1939-1941, Hitler and his National Socialist Workers' Party were at the peak of popular love. The Nazi Party, according to the respected political scientist Prof. Jürgen Falter, had about 9,000,000 members by 1945. If we assume the Nazi census of 1939 is correct, just under 80 million people lived in the Reich.
This means that one in six adults in Germany was a member of the Nazi Party.
But this did not exhaust the devotion to the Führer, on the contrary. At the peak of his popularity around the summer of 1940, when France fell, he was at his apogee. According to the influential British historian Professor Ian Kershaw, at this point support for Hitler in German society was between 70 and 90 percent. “Heil Hitler“ had become “Good day“, as we can find in the archives of the Holocaust Encyclopedia at the American Holocaust Museum. This is not just a party greeting, it is an element of national identity.
On the other side of the world, Japan is an integral part of the Axis along with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Japan, unlike its European allies, is not focused on race or fascist ideology.
It is an ultranationalist militaristic empire formally ruled by an emperor, who at that time was considered to have divine origin, and effectively navigated in international relations by a military dictatorship. As Professor Robert Paxton notes - although the dictatorship imposed mass mobilizations, no part of society expressed dissatisfaction and did not organize itself to resist. Support for the emperor was gigantic, he was considered a god, and the military successes of the army were a cause for national pride. Japan until 1941-1942 was a country in which there was virtually no other national idea than military expansion under the auspices of the emperor.
How is it that these two societies - the German and the Japanese - which deified their leaders managed to become the democracies we know today? There are many answers.
In Germany, the policy of the four Ds is being implemented - denazification, demilitarization, democratization and decentralization. In Japan, the demilitarization of this highly militarized society at the time is underway, the Tokyo War Crimes Trials are being held, the constitution has been changed, and under pressure from Douglas MacArthur, Emperor Hirohito was not tried as a war criminal and retained his position, but in a special declaration he renounced his claim to “divine origin“. This turned out to be one of the key decisions in view of the peculiarities of Japanese society at that time. But in both cases, the Americans remained on the ground for many years - in Japan officially until 1952, and in Germany until 1955. After that, America continued to be present, just not under the formal occupation status.
I am telling all this because there is a very obvious analogy that, alas, escapes most people. by the left-liberal elites in the Western world.
There is one place on the planet whose population overwhelmingly supports the criminal organization that rules it. There is a population that supports the murder of opponents, terrorist acts, violence. A place where, after a mass slaughter of innocents, there were people celebrating with flags in the streets. A place that is in the international information exchange every day, but the mass suggestion is that they are completely wronged, and their neighbor is some kind of, you see, aggressor and genocidal player. Of course, we are talking about Palestine.
Unfortunately, Hamas still enjoys widespread support in both Gaza and the West Bank, although this support has noticeably decreased in recent years. And while leftists and liberals in Western societies create such absurdities as “Queer for Palestine“ and chant “from the river to the sea“ without knowing which river is which, or which sea is which, Hamas has already has been entrenched and rooted in Palestinian society for too long.
The historical truth is that Palestine does not want two states.
Israel would be ready for such a solution; the country has repeatedly given the necessary credit for trust in its history. If Israel were not inclined to a two-state solution, it would not have withdrawn from Gaza in 2005. Therefore, immediately after that, power there was usurped by Hamas and we see where this led - radicalization, fanaticism, terrorism. Some say that after Hamas's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, Israel overreacted. To them, I answer the following - first, there is no reciprocity in war. Having taken up arms against someone stronger than you, you must be ready to bear the consequences. And second, Israel, despite the massiveness of the campaign in Gaza, remains the only power in modern military history that makes such efforts to protect the civilian population. No one else warns the civilian population, no one else uses the smallest bombs in their arsenal.
The accusations against Israel always follow the same pattern - they are guilty of everything, they are committing "genocide", they are "colonizers". This is always said by left-liberal circles, who have suspiciously perceived the anti-Semitic rhetoric of those whose antipode they think they are. If Israel are "colonizers", which is the mother colony? If Israel are "colonizers", why did they withdraw from Gaza? I won't even say a word about "genocide" - all lawyers know the legal meaning of this term well and we know that nothing that Israel has done can be qualified by this expression. Not to mention that if Israel really wanted to just kill everyone in Gaza, as the crazy theories of pro-Hamas spokesmen say, it would do it because it has the necessary military capacity. But it doesn't.
From Hollywood stars who don't know their social role (which is not to give their minds on geopolitical issues!) to many European leaders including - like the failed extreme leftist in Spain Pedro Sanchez for example - they go to bed and wake up with how bad Israel is. And all this while Israel's opponents in Palestine, in the person of Hamas, literally have it written in their founding document that the state of Israel should not exist. What will you do if you have to fight against an enemy that denies your right to exist?
A path to de-Hamasization of Palestine is needed. Hamas is a terrorist organization that is a generator of evil.
The leftists accuse Israel of civilian casualties in Gaza, but they are silent about Hamas' civilian casualties in Israel. We hear and see criticism of Israel, but where is the criticism of these terrible people who deliberately hide among civilians in order to increase the casualties and gain world sympathy? The step to disarm Hamas is wonderful. This is a good start and Bulgaria should be proud of people like Nikolay Mladenov, who, under the auspices of President Trump, is making enormous efforts to resolve this conflict. This is a good start.
But there is still a long way to go. Hamas has shown no sign that it is ready to change. Until that happens, Palestinian society must be de-Hamasized, and just as the Allies supported German and Japanese citizens after World War II, the same must be done in Palestine. Only when Hamas and radicalism in general cease to be the key factor in Palestine can there be lasting peace. We are on this path, but we still have a long way to go.
It is time to de-Hamasize.