Cutting off funds to Palestine after Hamas took over was a mistake.

To say that Hamas is still the terrorist group it was is simply false. Other groups, such as Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa Martyars Brigade, have taken the mantle of leading militant actions since the second intifada. Still other groups seem to be coming to the fore with these latest attacks, which had nothing to do with Hamas. Hamas has tried to present itself as more of a political organization to rival Fatah. Any group vying for Palestinian support must have some method of militancy, but much of Hamas's support comes from the work it does to provide benefits that Palestinians need. Cutting off funding to the democratically-elected leaders of Palestine only leaves them less able to control splinter groups that truly do want to wipe Israel off the face of the Earth. The poorer and more idle a group of agitated people are, the more likely you are to see a rise in terrorist violence. Cutting off funds to Palestine did just this while leaving the ruling party financially unable to deal with it. There is no doubt that cutting off funds have hurt Hamas in the eyes of their supporters since they have been unable to provide the benefits they did, but that has only served to destabilize the Palestinian territories as evidenced by the civil war between Fatah and Hamas. Other, much more militant groups have been able to thrive in this power vacuum and have pushed the violence that we see now. Hamas was victorious in January, 2006, because Fatah had been seen as corrupt and unresponsive to the needs of their people, while Hamas did more to alleviate the suffering of Palestinians. This is exactly what democracy is suppose to bring about: the overthrow of a corrupt and unresponsive regime in favor of a group that will benefit the people. We should be supporting this, not hurting it. Yes, Fatah did take those steps, but that was the direct result of being in power. Fatah was much more actively militant when they took power of the PLO than Hamas was in 2006. To quote the BBC: "Arafat took over as chairman of the executive committee of the PLO in 1969, a year that Fatah is recorded to have carried out 2,432 guerrilla attacks on Israel". As time went on, and the international community put pressure on the visible head of the Palestinian movement, they became more mainstream, leading to the advances you mentioned at Oslo in 1993. Hamas had already been mainstreaming itself by its running in internationally observed elections, so this process would have been accelerated. The current situation is the result of Fatah and Hamas fighting each other, since neither can claim the backing of Palestinians since they are poorer then they were before Hamas was elected, and neither group being able to exert power over smaller, more militant groups. Israel pulling out of Gaza was part of a peace process that was undermined by cutting off funds to Palestine. The unrest and militancy that cutting off funds fomented left the power vacuum that has lead directly to this violence. Sharon didn't want to continue occupying Gaza anyway, so dumping Gaza was as much alleviating an Israeli headache as it was fostering good will. Israel had occupied the West Bank and Gaza since the 1967 war. Obviously occupation wasn't working either. Pulling out of Gaza could have worked. Hamas took power because Fatah was seen as corrupt and unresponsive, even though the pullout happened under Fatah's control in 2005. Therefore, to say tht pulling out emboldened Hamas is baseless. The international community could have worked with Hamas just as it did with Fatah, but it chose to cut it off. This has created the unrest that is directly related to the violence we are seeing right now. Cutting off funds left Hamas unable to provide the services they use to and left them unable to corral smaller, more militant groups. The pullout was stabbed in the back by short-sighted reactionism that is fueled by the emotionalism that surrounds the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Just yesterday, the Israeli ambassador to the UN came on CNN and said that the attackers went in to a jewish seminary and killed people reading the bible. The bible? I thought rabbis in training read the torrah personally. He did that intentionally to get christians in this country to be outraged over the incident and support Israel. The attack was dispicable, but it is very difficult to figure out the truth when such misinformation is willfully spread like this. Cutting off Hamas was the result of this kind of reactionary emotionalism fueled by the misinformation I just cited, and Israelis are paying for it now.