Steve wrote: "Those suicide bombings had been
stepped up by Hamas in the beginnings of the Intifada 2 uprising in September 2000, but then ended due to an agreement between Arafat's
Palestinian Authority and Hamas."

Well Steve, you can argue till the cows come home how Sharon "wrecked" some kind of Hamas ceasefire, but look at this article from the Jerusalem Post on Jan. 10th, 2005

An exerpt:

"...hundreds of students attended a rally organized by Hamas at Bir Zeit University, where they called for more suicide attacks against Israel.

"Oh suicide bomber, wrap yourself with an explosive belt and fill the scene with blood," chanted a chorus of five male students at the rally, held by the Hamas-affiliated Islamic List to mark the ninth anniversary of the killing of Hamas bomb-maker Yehya Ayyash, better known as "The Engineer."

Oh and Steve, I'm real sick of your "Hebrew-speakers" nomenclature instead of the real word "Israelis." Are you aware that Arabic is also an official language in Israel, on an equal par with Hebrew? Not every Israeli speaks Hebrew!!