Rod asks:

The Palestinians, on the other hand, had a choice — and they chose Hamas, in a free and fair election. Are they not to be held responsible for those choices?

Rod’s logic is, of course, what Al-Qa’ida uses to justify attacks on American civilian targets such as on 9/11, embassies, tourists, etc. that we elected governments that do all sorts of nasty things in third world countries. I believe that Rev. Wright got all sorts of grief from saying that 9/11 was a case of “chickens coming home to roost.”

The irony of the “they elected Hamas” dodge is that the US did everything it could short of rigging the vote to try to get Fateh to beat Hamas. Those were poorly thought out elections aided and abetted by the Bush Administration which Hamas won fair and square running on a “change” (!!!) and anti-corruption platform.