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

 Not at all. They actually vote democratic. If the author can't
 even get that right why would you expect him to get anything
 else right?

 JB> ==============================

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


 JB> Obama camp 'prepared to talk to Hamas'

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

 Since practically everybody except the extremists seem to agree
 that is necessary for resolution, it would probably be a good
 idea.

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

 Even - handed seems to be a key phrase.

 ...

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

 And if the current policy is 'counter-productive' then changing
 it would seem to be a good idea.

 ...

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

 Like, maybe recognizing that Hamas won the election? Like maybe
 reminding people that Israel encouraged Hamas in it's early days
 as a counter to Fatah? Like maybe declaring that nobody's
 actions over there have been legitimate, so it's time to bring
 an end to it?

 ...

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

 And that is another key, and one of the most important ones. The
 extremists in the Middle East have been pulling the strings for
 decades. That is on both sides. There are Israeli extremists
 just as there are Arab extremists. The goal of the extemists is
 to keep the hostilities going until they acheive total victory
 for their truly outrageous ends.

 It is time to decide the extremists won't be allowed to pull the
 strings anymore.

 ...

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

 And that would be a victory for the extremists.

 ...

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

 Which he probably did because all his opponents adopted the
 irrational position that talking to everyone involved is evil.
 Malley was working for an NGO that was working for peace, but he
 was in cooperation with the Bush administration, both advising
 them of his contacts before he made them, and briefing them
 after the meetings. IOW, he was doing for the Bush
 administration much of what it is expected the Obama
 administration will do to open the dialog.

 ...

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

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

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

 I will, however, require a strong counter response once he takes
 office to gain any credibility at all in the Middle East. Once
 he has given Isreal even tacit support, he will have to work
 harder to gain the confidence of the Arabs.

 ...

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

 Maybe the Jewish community is smart enough, and knows better
 than you do, what is best for them.

 ...

BOB KLAHN bob.klahn{at}sev.org   http://home.toltbbs.com/bobklahn

... I am Hamlet of Borg: prepare to be, or not to be...
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