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Notes -
It seems to me that the Biden administration really really does not want to get into a full-scale war in the Middle East right now. Hence the relatively restrained US response to various recent attacks that Iran-allied groups have launched against US assets.
I personally support trying to avoid a US-Iran war but I don't know why the Biden administration is being so cautious. Humanitarian considerations? Holdover of Obama-era rapprochement diplomacy towards Iran? Not wanting to endanger the delicate web of US relationships with various Middle Eastern groups? Fear that it would distract so many US resources into the Middle East that Russia would defeat Ukraine? Worries about next year's election? Maybe some mix of all of these?
Anyway, not everyone who is calling for a cease-fire is doing so because they have some sort of inaccurate views about Hamas. The Biden administration's official reason for pushing for a cease-fire is in order to free hostages. There may be all kinds of reasons for America's restrained response that have nothing to do with people inaccurately understanding Hamas or Islamism or whatever.
One that you missed: the Far East. Post-Hong-Kong, there is ~0% support for unification in Taiwan, so Beijing wants to invade; the only thing that might possibly deter this is the USA, and that's a full-time job that doesn't leave room for side gigs. If the million-man-swim does happen, the USA faces two incredibly-terrible choices - either it can break its word and throw Taipei to the panda, with a resulting enormous blow to the Western alliance system, or it can fight a Third World War with the likely result of "Pyrrhic victory, millions of Americans dead".
My gut says this last, best hope for peace will probably fail anyway, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's not worth trying, and it certainly doesn't mean that people won't try it.
Where's a Babylon station when you need one?
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Pro reunification sentiments went from about 11% to about 7%: https://esc.nccu.edu.tw/PageDoc/Detail?fid=7801&id=6963
16% to 7%; the final crackdown in Hong Kong was in 2020, but the major Hong Kong issues started in 2019 and that's AFAICT the reason for the massive signal in that year. And the three firm "no"s combined went from 44% to 58%.
Note also that the trend went from pro-Beijing in the mid-2010s to stable in the 2020s, at least when aggregating the two unificationist answers and the three hard-nos. I believe the PRC's claims that they want peaceful unification - they'd be stupid not to - but in 2018 the reports coming in to Xi would have looked way more conducive to that than they do now.
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also, if the US fights China how am I getting my new iPhone
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100% of it is this.
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On a more cynical note: the need to keep gas prices low prior to the 2024 election.
It's worth noting that, throughout 2022, there was daily news about rapprochement with Iran that seemed timed to lower oil prices. The Biden admin also drained the SPR to levels not seen since the early 1980s in an effort to suppress oil prices. This is a major priority for them.
A 50 cent increase in gas prices might be worth 1 point in the polls on election day.
Never underestimate just how simple and stupid American politics can be.
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