Bagpuss there really are no words, just heartfelt sympathy to your family and those who have had this savagery inflicted on them 
truly, truly shocking. I'm not sure how Hamas can garner any sympathy after such a horrific massacre that involved the slaughter of babies, but they do! they seem to have masses of supporters, as Candelle's post stated a robust PR machine. Hamas of course are not representative of all Palestinian people, they are a terrorist organisation in thrall to their paymasters, Iran, and who in their right mind would want to live under that regime, I'm sure most ordinary Palestinian citizens don't. Only the other day a young 16 year old girl was pulled off a train in Iran and savagely beaten by modesty police 
now in hospital with possible brain damage, her crime, she didn't have a wretched piece of cloth covering her head and modesty police well that tells us everything about that country's attitude to women. I do wonder if Iran has orchestrated this as some sort of proxy war as Israel's relationship with Saudi has strengthened of late.
Iran is of course gloating as many others are in the aftermath of this atrocious attack. There are plenty of westerners who also spit out all manner of vitriol to our Jewish fellow citizens, read David Baddiel's book "Jews Don't Count" to be a Jew makes one 100% culpable for whatever extreme behaviour the Israeli government are meting out. Are any other group of people continually lampooned as a cabal of rich bankers who control the world? There is this subliminal hatred of the Jewish people by a minority. I would add it was heartening to hear David Lammy's condemnation speech of Hamas at the Labour Party conference the other day.
I remember many years ago working for a Jewish firm when I was all of 18 and finding them at times tunnel visioned in their defence of Israel and me being rather naive arguing the case for the Palestinians and boy did they fall on me like a pack of wolves, but that was back in the seventies. In retrospect I imagine their experiences of family members who survived or didn't survive the holocaust was still at the fore. That hit home to me when I visited Israel in the early eighties and whilst having lunch on the beach, we noticed a group of older people sitting at table nearby where their tattooed numbers were clearly visible. I think those feelings of never feeling safe and "will we have to move on again" from wherever home maybe, is always at the fore or the Jewish psyche, years and years of interminable persecution and the desire for a homeland is hard wired into the soul. I recently discovered through DNA testing that my maternal grandfather was half Jewish and that side of the family emanated from Alsace which has made me wonder what happened to any that remained there during the terrible years of the German occupation.
It's so hard to read about the horror of the latest situation particularly when babies and children are involved, I feel exactly the same whether the victims are Jewish or Palestinian they just innocent pawns who never deserve any of this.
I think Whitewave's history timeline of how the state of Israel came about is relevant, I think we all need to know there are two sides to any conflict such as this. I have a book on the Jewish Diaspora somewhere I'll have to find it. Nevertheless I find the overt taking to the streets and gloating that Hamas supporters display abhorrent, sickening. I witnessed the intimidation of some flag wavers down in Bournemouth a couple of years ago trying to bait some orthodox Jews on the Sabbath when they are quite visible going to and from synagogue, it did make me wonder at the time "where are the police" these are just peaceful people observing their religious rituals and they deserve protection like anyone else, especially given their history.
