Jesus. I'm not even going to refute this pathetic defence of Hamad. I'd lose the will to live if I believed people were really stupid enough not miss the yawning difference between Henry's meaning and Hamad's. Listen to the interview again. Hamad never said he was "fighting the oppressor." He never said "give me liberty or give me death." Even HE was more honest than you about what he wanted to do. That should give you pause.

The fact that some hostages were treated well, or simply were able to forgive the cruelty of their captors, does not mean that Hamas are a benevolent force. Have you heard of Stockholm syndrome? Do you think individual acts of kindness by Nazi soldiers (I'm sure there were some) refute the evidence of the Holocaust? Do you think individual acts of kindness by Israeli soldiers (I've seen some of those) compensate for the blockade or the bombing happening right now in Gaza?

I'm majoring (??) on the words of Hamas because that's what this article is about; the disdain Hamas has for the lives of both innocent Israelis and Palestinians. It's so tiresome having people whine that every 1000-word article they read should somehow cover every word said over the past 75 years. I could write a book about Israel/Palestine and still not cover all the nuance. But there's no nuance needed here. Hamas is a terrorist organisation that is quite happy to kill innocent Israelis AND Palestinians. Anybody supporting them, regardless of their feelings on Israel/Palestine in general, is a monster or an idiot.

I think both Israelis and Palestinians are teaching their kids to hate each other. And the attacks targeting civilians, both from Palestine and from Israel, make that lesson really easy to teach. So you can continue to blindly defend one side and pretend the other is the only one that's done anything wrong, or you can be a grownup, acknowledge that nobody's hands are clean here, and make a serious attempt to advocate a solution that will lead to less dead children.