What uncalled-for spleen, Michael. I merely asked you to not compare Hamas, even in a shady manner, with the Nazis. Your juxtaposition did exactly that. There is simply no comparison. Apart from anything else (and here's the realpolitik), Hamas would never carry the Gazan people with them if there was actually anything genuine on the table to negotiate if they then continued with the rocket attacks. Not in a million years. Hamas are no position to act as a dictatorship with their people not behind them. The problem is that the potential for Hamas to be pragmatic, in spite of all the hints coming from them, is never appreciated by their adversaries. Remember, Israel murdered one top Hamas man who was going for a long-term ceasefire. Odd, those negotiations, involving as they did a man who supposedly wanted every Jew dead. One day we will talk to Hamas. Israel knows that talking means compromising. All the bluster about Hamas being terrorists and we don't talk to terrorists (cheers to the US/AIPAC for that as well) is a cover for the fact that Israel neither needs nor wants compromises. It's an excuse not to talk which goes down well in Israel and the US. I suppose Israel will be looking over its shoulder tonight, worried that the US will join the chorus of outrage (which, unfortunately, is all singing but no dancing). They needn't fret. The Israel lobby, led by AIPAC, will ensure that any politico who goes beyond mild, formulaic rebuke, will be belly-up before they can say "where's democracy around here?"