Hypocrisy on Hamas

[Scurrilous]

McCain Was for Talking Before He Was Against It

<snip>

"If the recent exchanges between President Bush, Barack Obama and John McCain on Hamas and terrorism are a preview of the general election, we are in for an ugly six months. Despite his reputation in the media as a charming maverick, McCain has shown that he is also happy to use Nixon-style dirty campaign tactics. By charging recently that Hamas is rooting for an Obama victory, McCain tried to use guilt by association to suggest that Obama is weak on national security and won't stand up to terrorist organizations, or that, as Richard Nixon might have put it, Obama is soft on Israel.

President Bush picked up this theme yesterday. Without naming Obama during his speech last night to Israel's Knesset, Bush suggested that Democrats want to "negotiate with terrorists" while Republicans want to fight terrorists.

The Obama campaign was right to criticize the president for his remarks and for engaging in partisan politics while overseas. Many presidents have said things abroad that could be construed as violating this unwritten rule of American politics. But it is hard to remember any president abusing the prestige of his office in as crude a way as Bush did yesterday. Charging your opponents with appeasement and likening them to Neville Chamberlain in the Knesset is a brutal blow. It is bad enough that Republicans use the politics of personal destruction here at home, but to deploy that kind of political weapon at an occasion as solemn as an American president addressing the parliament of a friendly government marks a new low.

McCain, meanwhile, is guilty of hypocrisy. I am a supporter of Hillary Clinton and believe that she was right to say, about McCain's statement on Hamas, "I don't think that anybody should take that seriously." Unfortunately, the Republicans know that some people will. That's why they say such things.

But given his own position on Hamas, McCain is the last politician who should be attacking Obama. Two years ago, just after Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections, I interviewed McCain for the British network Sky News's "World News Tonight" program. Here is the crucial part of our exchange:

I asked: "Do you think that American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past, working with the Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?"

McCain answered: "They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so . . . but it's a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/15/AR2008051503306.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

[Scurrilous]

1. Is Israel breaking its own taboo on talks with Hamas?

<snip>

"Participants at a recent inner cabinet meeting were listening to details of the Egyptian mediation initiative between Israel and Hamas on a cease-fire in the Gaza Strip recently, when a senior minister reportedly reminded those present that Israel does not negotiate, directly or indirectly, with Hamas. Shin Bet security service head Yuval Diskin interrupted, saying there was no other way to describe the talks.

A letter to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, the details of which were revealed Friday, called for the indirect and secret talks with Hamas to be recognized. As for Israel's greatest concerns - that Hamas will use a lull in hostilities to rearm and that Egypt's promises to fight weapons smuggling bear no weight - the writers of the letter offered no solution.

Among the signatories' names, that of MK Yossi Beilin (Meretz) is to be expected. More surprising are the names of the former Shin Bet chief Ephraim Halevi, who has actually been calling for talks with Hamas in recent months, along with former chief of staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak and Brigadier General (res.) Shmuel Zakai, a former Gaza Division commander. This is an attempt to provide a military stamp of approval to a step Israel has officially sworn it would not take. What was taboo two years ago is no longer."

more


Former defense officials call for indirect talks with Hamas

<snip>

"Former senior defense and security officials have called on the government to conduct indirect negotiations with Hamas on a long-term cease-fire.

Among the signatories of the letter, whose content was made public Friday on Channel 2, were former Mossad head Ephraim Halevi; former chief of staff Amnon Lipkin-Shahak; Brigadier General (res.) Shmuel Zakai, former commander of Israeli troops in the Gaza Strip; and MK Yossi Beilin (Meretz), among the architects of the Oslo accords and the Geneva Initiative.

Copies of the letter were sent to Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

The letter recommends against a large-scale military operation in Gaza, which the signatories say will end with a cease-fire in any case, but after heavy losses on both sides.

"Recognizing that ending the Hamas regime in Gaza is not a realistic goal and that reinstating Fatah in the Gaza Strip by means of Israeli bayonets is not desirable ... non-public negotiations should take place with Hamas through Egypt or anyone else acceptable to both sides," they wrote."

more

[oberliner]

2. That Kerry line sure has gotten a lot of mileage

Kind of irritating.

I don't understand why Kerry got so much crap for saying that he was in favor of something and then changed his mind and was against it.

How is that a bad thing?

Why has this become a running joke these many years later?

[Scurrilous]

3. France FM: We are in touch with Hamas; group confirms informal contact

<snip>

"French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Monday that Paris has had informal contact with the leadership of the militant Hamas organization, despite a Western embargo imposed on the group over its refusal to renounce violence and acknowledge Israel.

Hamas spokesman in the Gaza Strip Sami Abu Zuhri confirmed the contacts, saying that the group has held contacts with many European officials, including French representatives.

He says the talks were to discover Hamas' opinions on political issues and there were no discussions of opening formal diplomatic relations.

Abu Zuhri will not say what other countries have spoken to Hamas. He says they have to decide whether to go public.

Kouchner was speaking on Europe-1 radio after a report Monday in the daily Le Figaro in which a retired French diplomat says he met with Hamas leaders a month ago.

According to the paper, the diplomat, Yves Aubin de la Messuziere, says Hamas told him they were ready to accept a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders. He was quoted as saying that that amounts to an indirect recognition of Israel."

more