Some people keep repeating that Hamas wants the state of Israel 'wiped off the map' like a mantra or a jingle, as if it required no further comment or context, and was self-evident proof of Hamas' (and by extension, since they voted for Hamas, the Palestinian people) unreasonable pathology. The first question of course is to wonder if the translation from Arabic is accurate in the first instance. But even assuming it is, the phrase is more ambiguous than has been suggested and could as easily mean scrapping Israel's borders (but leaving the population intact) as the more-usually ascribed meaning of exterminating the Israeli population. Of course, either scenario is bad news for Israelis, but the idea that it is simply the wanton badness of Hamas that prompts them to make such utterances in the first instance requires further comment.
The most obvious point is that is seems to be forgotten or overlooked that since 1967 Israel has occupied and aggressively expanded into the area known as the West Bank, home to many Palestinians, and Gaza to a lesser extent (afterall, Gaza is mainly desert). The PLO was the first, but Hamas is the latest expression of the Palestinians' reaction to being colonised, harassed, robbed and murdered. While I am not a fan of violence, it is not sufficient to simply isolate Hamas' violent rhetoric as if it existed in a vacuum. I often detect a tint of racism in comments on Hamas where Arabs are painted as being genetically pre-disposed to mindless violence.
Those kinds of arguments are especially transparent to me as similar explanations have been put forward by certain 'great thinkers' to explain Irish political violence as the product of a violent race. The Irish were characterised as immoral, irrational drunkards with a propensity to violence in contrast to the sober, rational and peace-loving English that were trying to bring them the benefits of being colonised, harassed, exploited and murdered. For many years a campaign of anti-Irish racism ran in England, mainly in the gutter press. In the 1800s, the Irish were shown as simian types, sporting a brace of pistols and a scowl as they propagated their vandalism of society to the affront of righteous indignant Englishmen everywhere. Of course Darwin's theories were popular at the time….During the 'Troubles' of the 1970s – 1990s, the Irish were characterised as 'loving to fight' wantonly violent etc etc., Of course not everyone thought like this, it was mainly reflected in the tabloids. But in the absence of any real discussion in society on the causes of the violence, the idea took hold that the Irish were somehow different, disposed to violence etc., Liz Curtis' book "The Same Old Story – the roots of anti-Irish racism" (pub. Sasta. Belfast: 1996 ISBN 1 901005 00 3) gives an excellent account of how this is done.