I am somewhat disappointed with your post Adam.Whilst I am sure you write it with good intentions, it seems somewhat naive. Surely it would be better to keep Hamas out in the cold and for the Palestinians to therefore realise that that is the case. I would hope that following the farce with Hamas terrorists taking over Gaza by the use of the gun would lead to the Palestinian president calling for new elections. The Palestinians can then be given a chance to vote again.

According to this weeks Economist magazine, the majority of Palestinians realise that a 2 state solution is the only solution for peace. If this is the case then the election campaign can be run for or against peace.

Maybe here, it is me that is being naive, but I hope that the Palestinians would vote for a party that has at least a chance of delivering peace. If they continue to vote for Hamas after this, then they will have no one to blame but themselves. If there were not the infamous "three nos" in 1967, there may already have been a Palestinian state on the West Bank and Gaza. 40 years on there is still no Palestinian state and a Hamas government committed to the destruction of Israel and to terrorist methodology.

The time has not come to invite Hamas to peace negotiations given them credibility, but for the Palestinians themselves to vote for a peacemaker. Of course, the Israelis also should be paying attention to who they vote for as I am under no illusions that certain political parties in Israel have a programme that will never be acceptable to the Palestinians.