And the Jewish community continues to vote democrat.  It is truly 
bewildering...

==============================

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/08/barack-obama-gaza-hamas


Obama camp 'prepared to talk to Hamas'

Incoming administration will abandon Bush's isolation of Islamist group 
to initiate low-level diplomacy, say transition sources

US president-elect Barack Obama is widely expected to adopt a more even-
handed approach to the Middle East conflict once he assumes office. 
Photograph: Tannen Maury/EPA

The incoming Obama administration is prepared to abandon President 
Bush's doctrine of isolating Hamas by establishing a channel to the 
Islamist organisation, sources close to the transition team say.

The move to open contacts with Hamas - which could be initiated through 
the US intelligence services - would represent a definitive break with 
the Bush presidency's ostracising of the group.

The Guardian has spoken to three people with knowledge of the 
discussions in the Obama camp.

There is no talk of Obama approving direct diplomatic negotiations with 
Hamas early on in his administration, but he is being urged by advisers 
to initiate low-level or clandestine approaches, and there is growing 
recognition in Washington that the policy of ostracising Hamas is 
counter-productive.

A tested course would be to start contacts through Hamas and the US 
intelligence services - similar to the secret process through which the 
US engaged with the PLO in the 1970s. Israel did not become aware of the 
contacts until much later.

Richard Haass, a diplomat under both presidents Bush who was named by a 
number of news organisations this week as Obama's choice for Middle East 
envoy, supports low level contacts with Hamas provided there is a 
ceasefire in place and a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation emerges.

Another potential contender for a foreign policy role in the Obama 
administration suggested the president-elect would not be bound by the 
Bush doctrine of isolating Hamas. "This is going to be an administration 
that is committed to negotiating with critical parties on critical 
issues," they said.

There are a number of options that would avoid a politically toxic 
scenario for Obama of seeming to give legitimacy to Hamas.

"Secret envoys, multilateral six-party talk-like approaches. The total 
isolation of Hamas that we promulgated under Bush is going to end," said 
Steve Clemons, the director of the American Strategy Programme at the 
New America Foundation.

"You could do something through the Europeans. You could invent a 
structure that is multilateral. It is going to be hard for the Neocons 
to swallow," he said. "I think it is going to happen.

However, one Middle East expert close to the transition team warned: "It 
is highly unlikely that they will be public about it."

The two weeks since Israel launched its military campaign against Gaza 
have heightened anticipation about how Obama intends to deal with the 
Middle East. He adopted a strongly pro-Israel position during the 
election campaign, as did his erstwhile opponent and choice for 
secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. However, it is widely thought Obama 
will adopt a more even-handed approach once he is president.

Obama's main priority now, in the remaining days before his 
inauguration, is to ensure the crisis does not rob him of the chance to 
set his own foreign policy agenda, rather than merely react to events.

"We will be perceived to be weak and feckless if we are perceived to be 
on the margins, unable to persuade the Israelis, unable to work with the 
international community to end this," said Aaron David Miller, a former 
state department adviser on the Middle East.

"Unless he is prepared to adopt a policy that is tougher, fairer and 
smarter than both of his predecessors you might as well hang a closed-
for-the-season sign on any chance of America playing an effective role 
in defusing the current crisis or the broader crisis," he said.

Obama has defined himself in part by his willingness to talk to 
America's enemies. But the president-elect would be wary of being seen 
to give legitimacy to Hamas as a consequence of the war in Gaza.

Bruce Hoffman, a counterterrorism expert at the Georgetown school of 
foreign service, said it was unlikely Obama would move to initiate 
contacts with Hamas unless the radical faction in Damascus was crippled 
by the conflict in Gaza. "This would really be dependent on Hamas's 
military wing having suffered a real, almost decisive, drubbing."

Even with such caveats, there is growing agreement, among Republicans as 
well as Democrats, on the need to engage Hamas to achieve a sustainable 
peace in the Middle East - even among Obama's close advisers.

In an article published on Wednesday on the website of Foreign Affairs, 
but apparently written before the fighting in Gaza, Haass, who is 
president of the Council on Foreign Relations writes: "If the ceasefire 
between Israel and Hamas continues to hold and a Hamas-PA reconciliation 
emerges, the Obama administration should deal with the joint Palestinian 
leadership and authorise low-level contact between US officials and 
Hamas in Gaza."

The article was written with Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to 
Israel and an adviser to the incoming secretary of state, Hillary 
Clinton.

"The change of perceptions is underway," said Alistair Crooke, director 
of the Conflicts Forum who was a former security adviser to the EU's 
Middle East envoy. "However, it hasn't translated yet into something 
substantive."

Last month, General Anthony Zinni, who was Bush's envoy to the Middle 
East, called on Obama to enage Hamas and move quickly to reach a peace 
deal.

The willingness for conditional engagement with Hamas marks a sharp 
break with the world view of the Bush administration.

Obama has said repeatedly that restoring America's image in the world 
would rank among the top priorities of his administration, and there has 
been widespread praise for his choice of Hillary Clinton as secretary of 
state and Jim Jones, the former Marine Corps commandant, as his national 
security adviser.

He is expected to demonstrate that commitment to charting a new foreign 
policy within days when the president-elect is expected to name a roster 
of envoys who will take charge of key foreign policy areas: Iran, the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, India-Pakistan, and North Korea.

Both Obama and Clinton adopted solidly pro-Israel positions during the 
election campaign. Last May, Obama sacked an adviser, Rob Malley, after 
it emerged he had met Hamas officials while working for the 
International Crisis Group.

In June, Obama told the Israeli lobbying group Aipac he supported 
Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel. That runs contrary to 
longstanding policy that the future of Jerusalem be decided through 
negotiation between Israel and the Palestinians.

In a visit to Israel one month later, Obama said he identified with 
efforts to protect Israeli cities from Hamas rockets.

Obama has further frustrated and confused those who had been looking to 
the incoming administration for a more even-handed approach to the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict by his refusal to make any substantive 
comment on Israel's military campaign on Gaza, nearly two weeks on.

He told a press conference on Wednesday: "We cannot be sending a message 
to the world that there are two different administrations conducting 
foreign policy. Until I take office, it would be imprudent of me to 
start sending out signals that somehow we are running foreign policy 
when I am not legally authorised to do so."

He added: "This silence is not as a consequence of a lack of concern."

And the Jewish community continues to vote democrat.  It is truly 
bewildering...

==============================

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/jan/08/barack-obama-gaza-hamas


Obama camp 'prepared to talk to Hamas'

Incoming administration will abandon Bush's isolation of Islamist group 
to initiate low-level diplomacy, say transition sources

US president-elect Barack Obama is widely expected to adopt a more even-
handed approach to the Middle East conflict once he assumes office. 
Photograph: Tannen Maury/EPA

The incoming Obama administration is prepared to abandon President 
Bush's doctrine of isolating Hamas by establishing a channel to the 
Islamist organisation, sources close to the transition team say.

The move to open contacts with Hamas - which could be initiated through 
the US intelligence services - would represent a definitive break with 
the Bush presidency's ostracising of the group.

The Guardian has spoken to three people with knowledge of the 
discussions in the Obama camp.

There is no talk of Obama approving direct diplomatic negotiations with 
Hamas early on in his administration, but he is being urged by advisers 
to initiate low-level or clandestine approaches, and there is growing 
recognition in Washington that the policy of ostracising Hamas is 
counter-productive.

A tested course would be to start contacts through Hamas and the US 
intelligence services - similar to the secret process through which the 
US engaged with the PLO in the 1970s. Israel did not become aware of the 
contacts until much later.

Richard Haass, a diplomat under both presidents Bush who was named by a 
number of news organisations this week as Obama's choice for Middle East 
envoy, supports low level contacts with Hamas provided there is a 
ceasefire in place and a Hamas-Fatah reconciliation emerges.

Another potential contender for a foreign policy role in the Obama 
administration suggested the president-elect would not be bound by the 
Bush doctrine of isolating Hamas. "This is going to be an administration 
that is committed to negotiating with critical parties on critical 
issues," they said.

There are a number of options that would avoid a politically toxic 
scenario for Obama of seeming to give legitimacy to Hamas.

"Secret envoys, multilateral six-party talk-like approaches. The total 
isolation of Hamas that we promulgated under Bush is going to end," said 
Steve Clemons, the director of the American Strategy Programme at the 
New America Foundation.

"You could do something through the Europeans. You could invent a 
structure that is multilateral. It is going to be hard for the Neocons 
to swallow," he said. "I think it is going to happen.

However, one Middle East expert close to the transition team warned: "It 
is highly unlikely that they will be public about it."

The two weeks since Israel launched its military campaign against Gaza 
have heightened anticipation about how Obama intends to deal with the 
Middle East. He adopted a strongly pro-Israel position during the 
election campaign, as did his erstwhile opponent and choice for 
secretary of state, Hillary Clinton. However, it is widely thought Obama 
will adopt a more even-handed approach once he is president.

Obama's main priority now, in the remaining days before his 
inauguration, is to ensure the crisis does not rob him of the chance to 
set his own foreign policy agenda, rather than merely react to events.

"We will be perceived to be weak and feckless if we are perceived to be 
on the margins, unable to persuade the Israelis, unable to work with the 
international community to end this," said Aaron David Miller, a former 
state department adviser on the Middle East.

"Unless he is prepared to adopt a policy that is tougher, fairer and 
smarter than both of his predecessors you might as well hang a closed-
for-the-season sign on any chance of America playing an effective role 
in defusing the current crisis or the broader crisis," he said.

Obama has defined himself in part by his willingness to talk to 
America's enemies. But the president-elect would be wary of being seen 
to give legitimacy to Hamas as a consequence of the war in Gaza.

Bruce Hoffman, a counterterrorism expert at the Georgetown school of 
foreign service, said it was unlikely Obama would move to initiate 
contacts with Hamas unless the radical faction in Damascus was crippled 
by the conflict in Gaza. "This would really be dependent on Hamas's 
military wing having suffered a real, almost decisive, drubbing."

Even with such caveats, there is growing agreement, among Republicans as 
well as Democrats, on the need to engage Hamas to achieve a sustainable 
peace in the Middle East - even among Obama's close advisers.

In an article published on Wednesday on the website of Foreign Affairs, 
but apparently written before the fighting in Gaza, Haass, who is 
president of the Council on Foreign Relations writes: "If the ceasefire 
between Israel and Hamas continues to hold and a Hamas-PA reconciliation 
emerges, the Obama administration should deal with the joint Palestinian 
leadership and authorise low-level contact between US officials and 
Hamas in Gaza."

The article was written with Martin Indyk, a former US ambassador to 
Israel and an adviser to the incoming secretary of state, Hillary 
Clinton.

"The change of perceptions is underway," said Alistair Crooke, director 
of the Conflicts Forum who was a former security adviser to the EU's 
Middle East envoy. "However, it hasn't translated yet into something 
substantive."

Last month, General Anthony Zinni, who was Bush's envoy to the Middle 
East, called on Obama to enage Hamas and move quickly to reach a peace 
deal.

The willingness for conditional engagement with Hamas marks a sharp 
break with the world view of the Bush administration.

Obama has said repeatedly that restoring America's image in the world 
would rank among the top priorities of his administration, and there has 
been widespread praise for his choice of Hillary Clinton as secretary of 
state and Jim Jones, the former Marine Corps commandant, as his national 
security adviser.

He is expected to demonstrate that commitment to charting a new foreign 
policy within days when the president-elect is expected to name a roster 
of envoys who will take charge of key foreign policy areas: Iran, the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict, India-Pakistan, and North Korea.

Both Obama and Clinton adopted solidly pro-Israel positions during the 
election campaign. Last May, Obama sacked an adviser, Rob Malley, after 
it emerged he had met Hamas officials while working for the 
International Crisis Group.

In June, Obama told the Israeli lobbying group Aipac he supported 
Jerusalem as the undivided capital of Israel. That runs contrary to 
longstanding policy that the future of Jerusalem be decided through 
negotiation between Israel and the Palestinians.

In a visit to Israel one month later, Obama said he identified with 
efforts to protect Israeli cities from Hamas rockets.

Obama has further frustrated and confused those who had been looking to 
the incoming administration for a more even-handed approach to the 
Israeli-Palestinian conflict by his refusal to make any substantive 
comment on Israel's military campaign on Gaza, nearly two weeks on.

He told a press conference on Wednesday: "We cannot be sending a message 
to the world that there are two different administrations conducting 
foreign policy. Until I take office, it would be imprudent of me to 
start sending out signals that somehow we are running foreign policy 
when I am not legally authorised to do so."

He added: "This silence is not as a consequence of a lack of concern."

CMPQwk 1.42-21 9999 
Democrats --  The party of trickle-up poverty ....


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