One of the issues that came up at the discussion was why Israel funded Hamas to begin with, instead of supporting more democratic and presumably less violent Palestinian organizations. The answer is simply that Hamas makes it easier for Israel to wage war rather than negotiate peace. It is noteworthy that as long as Hamas threatened to continue the suicide bombings, its leader was allowed to live. As soon as he "threatened" to stop the suicide bombings in response to full withdrawal of the occupation forces from Gaza, he had to be killed in the most dramatic, hate-inspiring manner possible. Anyway, Israeli fuding for Hamas is well-documented, as for example by the UPI here: http://tinyurl.com/3bpqt