re: #48 Fozzie Bear

That’s part and parcel of my point. If the truth could somehow be determined, I would bet support for Hamas is alot lower than it seems from the outside, and I would further bet that the elections there are anything but free and fair. Hamas is the occupier in Gaza, but that isn’t at all the same thing as Hamas being synonymous with the population there.

I bristle when I see the entire populace of that area painted with one brush, because I know for a fact that it just isn’t true, and because that is exactly the way Israelis are characterized by their enemies.

No offense, but I think you engage in wishful thinking. Since seizing control of Gaza, Hamas has a very public spectacle of going through and weeding out any dissent, overt or otherwise. Men even suspected of not being totally supportive of the cause have been shot, beheaded, or walked off the side of tall buildings as a means of thinning the herd. There may be many who don’t agree with Hamas 100%, but they agree enough not to say squat, at least so long as they want to continue converting O2 to CO2.