MC CAIN TELLS CONSERVATIVE BLOGGERS THAT HAMAS IS SUPPORTING OBAMA FOR PRESIDENT
OBAMA HIT THE NAIL SQUARELY ON THE THUMB YESTERDAY IF, INDEED, HE SAID WHAT IS REPORTED IN THE MEDIA THAT HE WILL SPEAK TO HAMAS ONLY IF THEY MEET A SET OF PREREQUISITES HE HAS ESTABLISHED IN ADVANCE. THAT SOUNDS FAR TO “BUSHONIAN” FOR MY LIKING.
MY PERSONAL OPINION IS THAT THE AMERICAN GOVERNMENT MUST BEGIN TO TALK TO HAMAS AND THE ENTIRE NETWORK OF TERRORIST STATES WITHOUT PRECONDITIONS IF THERE IS EVER TO BE GENUINE PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST
One of Obama’s informal advisors quit his campaign today in order to squelch rumors initiated by in the infamous right wing and John McCain that the terrorist organization, Hamas, was supporting Obama for president.
Robert Malley who works for the International Crisis Group and arbitrates predicaments between hostile groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah as well as lesser groups who are in conflict over more minor issues only consulted with the Obama campaign on an informal basis.
However, Obama’s response was not what I hoped he would say. He is taking the same posture that Bush has taken for eight years. We will not talk to our enemies until, in the case of Hamas, they recognize Israel as a legitimate state, denounce violence and agree to abide by any peace agreements between Israel and the Palestinians.
Progress toward concord between Israel and Palestine will never be reached if the United States continues the disastrous Bush policy of talking only to friends and only if they come around to our way of thinking in advance of talks.
We can persuade Hamas and the Palestinians to come to terms with a somewhat recalcitrant Israel only if we talk to them and talk to them now with all of the baggage they bring to the table. Before agreement can be reached, trust must be established on both sides and trust can be established only if all parties begin to talk with one another face to face.
Reagan used the term, “negotiate but verify.” Kennedy said, we will never fear to negotiate, but we will never negotiate out of fear. We reached accord with Russia and Eastern Europe by talking. For years we talked and argued and talked and argued until a basic foundation of trust was established between ourselves and the Soviet Union.
This we must do with Hamas if we are to bring it into the community of nations. It will never recognize Israel as long as Israel and the U. S. refuse to sit down and converse or until the “jihadists” learn to trust both opposition parties.
Obama’s position as it was articulated yesterday, is wrong. It is more of the same hogwash that Bush has been spewing forth for eight long years. I am working for, supporting and contributing to his campaign because I am counting on a new approach to foreign policy, not a repeat of the disastrous eight years the Bush administration pursued with neither insight nor erudition.
In the debates, Obama promised that he would talk to our enemies and he should stand by that promise if he intends to make progress toward peace in the Middle East and he must force Israel to do the same thing. We have played the game, Israel—right or wrong, long enough. Our friendship should be based upon mutual respect as well as mutual understanding to agree to disagree.
Israel is wrong not to use its status as an established country to be “big” enough to face Hamas and openly air their views about each other. Mutual respect will emerge from such candid encounters over time. It does no lasting good to exclude the “bad boy” from the table. Hamas is a product of democracy; it is the duly elected representative of a large percentage of the Palestinian people. While it is recalcitrant in its prolonged dislike for Israel; recognition will come only with mutual trust and that trust will be the child of mutual negotiations.
It has taken sixty years to make little or no progress toward peace with the Palestinians; political healing will not happen over night. But let the face to face negotiations begin for all parties to this conflict and let them begin the minute George W. Bush is put out to pasture in Crawford, TX.
Obama is too smart to let things continue to smolder in the most explosive part of the world today. Lebanon, again, is in the midst of civil war because Bush and the United Nations has failed to act to bring Hezbollah (including its sponsors in Syria and Iran) and the present government that is holding on to power by a thin thread of support together for negotiations. These parties must be brought together to talk face to face not alienated by shouting accusations at one another across the air waves as Bush and Rice have been doing for all of their years in office.
Jimmy Carter was harshly criticized for meeting with the leaders of Hamas in Syria recently. He was told he was interferring with on-going talks between Hamas and the U. S. Come on Rice, there are no on-going talks in which to interfere. After all, Carter is a private citizen who just happened to be the former president of the United States and he believes our government is making a fatal error by refusing to negotiate only with those who are our friends. Carter is right and I for one am please that the former president took the initiative to break through the ice that characterized the relationship between these two countries (Palestine as represented by Hamas and the U. S.) for too long.
McCain does this country no good by insinuating the Hamas is supporting Obama when he knows that they would prefer any government from any party political party other than the one purposed by McCain which is nothing more than a repeat of the Bush failures.
ADDENDUM; With the West Virginia primary on May 13, and Kentucky on May 20th, it is my humble opinion that the Senator from Illinois made a mistake by not putting forth a more impressive effort to win votes in two states he knows he will lose handily. He has more than enough money and the very effort to make this a fifty state contest would have added steel to his already impenetrable armor.
3:45:05 PM 
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