Is Hamas Israel's foster child?

I cannot remain silent about Israel's disproportionate response to Hamas in Gaza. NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof writes a column in today's paper that we all should read and ponder ... and then we should respond in some manner.

The Gaza Boomerang
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF
Published: January 7, 2009
NY Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/08/opinion/08kristof.html

At a time when Israel is bombing Gaza to try to smash Hamas, it’s worth remembering that Israel itself helped nurture Hamas.

When Hamas was founded in 1987, Israel was mostly concerned with Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement and figured that a religious Palestinian organization would help undermine Fatah. Israel calculated that all those Muslim fundamentalists would spend their time praying in the mosques, so it cracked down on Fatah and allowed Hamas to rise as a counterforce.