West talking to Hamas at low level

The BBC reports that "Groups of lawmakers from the UK and EU, travelling independently, have made widely publicised visits to Hamas's exiled leader in Damascus in recent months."
This is not so surprising, as the US/West is talking to Iran at least at a low level, and is even making plans to perhaps negotiate with the Taliban in Afghanistan.
The Israeli government is officially opposed to talks with Hamas, but according to the BBC, 64% of Israelis backed direct talks in a poll a year ago, which would show that once again, ordinary people have more common sense than their government--and if there was not such massive propaganda against Hamas, we can be confident that it would be much more than 64% of Israelis who would want to engage in talks with the group.