From New York Times, I'm Michael O'Borrow. This is a daily.

For years, Israel's leaders believe that they could co-exist with homos. After this

weekend's massacre, that belief is over. Today, my colleague Steven Erlinger on

Israel's plan to destroy homos and what it will mean for Palestinians and

Israelis. It's Wednesday, October 11th. Steve, we want to talk to you because

you have been a long time student of and journalist of the Middle East, Israel,

and the Palestinian people. You know this story very well. And we want you to help

make sense of Israel's pledge delivered over the past few days to destroy homos over the

attacks it carried out over the weekend. And I want to start by having you explain what

had been Israel's relationship with homos before those attacks.

Well, first, let's remember that Hamas is a Palestinian armed group. It was a branch

of what Israel originally considered moderate Muslim brotherhood. Hamas began in the 80s as

part of a kind of charity group. They did a lot of social aid. They had very well-educated

people. They had doctors. But as time went on, Hamas, which is dedicated to the destruction

of Israel, which on religious basis says Israel has no right to exist, that all Israeli

citizens are soldiers, that they're interlopers into holy Muslim lands, turned more and more

toward violence. And Hamas then became more involved with the struggle of Palestinians against

Israeli occupation. They buried some of the victims of a suicide bombing that destroyed

a crowded bus in Tel Aviv. And in the 90s became much more of a terrorist group. Hamas released a

video of a young man. It said, had carried the bomb onto the crowded number five bus in downtown

Tel Aviv. It set off a set of suicide bombings that really turned Israel upside down.

The organization has claimed credit for numerous suicide bombings in the last two years,

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