Distinctions Without a Difference?

I read various commenters here and there suggesting their interest and concern for the Palestinians, and insisting that we must distinguish between the Palestinians and Hamas. Ok.

In a legalistic sense, I think this is true and I sort of understand the point. No doubt there is some functioning organization that comprises, in a strictly legal sense, Hamas. And also no doubt there are millions of Palestinians who are not, technically speaking, part of that organization. So far, so good.

But I wonder, if I'm being honest with myself, if this point is really a distinction without any meaningful difference at all. I don't know for sure that it is. But the problem I'm having is that, while I do have some visible evidence that, in the main, Palestinians are pretty rabidly enthusiastic about Hamas' recent atrocities, I don't really have meaningful evidence that there exists any significant interest among the Palestinians at large to live in peace with Israel. Maybe there is evidence. I just don't have any. In fact, the evidence that I do have suggests quite the opposite.

(I'm agreeing for the sake of this discussion that there is a meaningful distinction to be made between "Palestinians" and "Arabs" generally. There is some reason to believe that even that distinction is not really meaningful. But, for purposes of these comments, I'll stipulate that Palestinians are an actual distinct people group more than just a useful fiction in support of historic Arab grievances.)

Anyway, in my mind, I can easily imagine that among the 8 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, there are many who do not wish death upon the Jews. The problem I'm having is that any such peaceful Palestinians are, truth be told, invisible. Their existence, one is thus tempted to conclude, inhabits the same realm as Bigfoot, or the Loch Ness Monster: one can imagine their existence, but definitive proof always seems to be just out of reach.

Meanwhile, hard evidence of Jew-hating Palestinians is everywhere -- all over western Europe, Australia, and the United States, for example. Wherever Palestinians have emigrated, they seem easily able to produce large groups of frothing, spittle-flecked screamers openly announcing their murderous intent toward the Jews, very often accompanied by unhidden longing for the Holocaust. I offer the past few days as evidence.

Where are those peaceful Palestinians, exactly?

The answer to this question matters. A lot. There are already calls to allow Palestinians from Gaza to emigrate to the United States. For immigration purposes, how can it be possible ever to distinguish, in advance, between a theoretically peaceful Palestinian who finds himself in the unfortunate circumstance of being surrounded by homicidal lunatic neighbors he disagrees with, and all those thousands of actual immigrants we have seen on TV the last few days, foaming at the mouth for more Jewish blood? Wouldn't we have to believe ourselves capable of mind reading to accurately differentiate between the homicidal maniacs and the peaceful unfortunates? And if we get this wrong, aren't we imposing possible mayhem and death on our neighbors?

What, exactly, is the evidence for the actual existence of meaningful numbers of Palestinians who don't harbor murder in their hearts? I'm told they exist. I can even imagine they exist. I just never see or hear anything from them. Anything at all.