popularity of Hamas

Regarding the fashionable references in the US press to the sagging popularity of Hamas among the Palestinians.  1) all that changed.  The war on Gaza and the stiff resistance boosted Hamas standing more than anything. 2) the references to polls that show rise in the popularity of PA are all traced to one source: the Khalil Shiqaqi polling center which is widely known to always miraculously producing polling numbers that are favorable to PA. This is the same polling place that published those widely disreputable polls about refugees and the right of return, which later were exposed as quite misleading because the refugees were in fact tricked into giving the "right answers".  Look, polling centers in our region (just as here) are not quite reliable.  In Lebanon, there are polling centers that will show you that March 8 will win the elections next time for sure, while other polling centers will show you that March 14 will win hands down.