President Hussein is floating the "let's talk to the annihilationists" idea, using the usual cast of American hating, Jew hating suspects. Those of us who have been following the ascent of the anointed one warned of this for eighteen months and suffered the slings and arrows of right wing nuttery.
How can Pres Hussein evade the long history of Hamas' anti-semitism and murder? It's time to choose, and this is tragic for the Jews. The first paragraph of the Hamas charter:
When the Palestinian intifada began in December 1987, Hamas produced a leaflet which read: "O all the people, men and women. O our children: the Jews - brothers of the apes, assassins of the prophets, bloodsuckers, warmongers - are murdering you, depriving you of life after having plundered your homeland and your homes. Only Islam can break the Jews and destroy their dream."
The Hamas charter views the Jews as diabolical and deserving of slaughter. "World Zionism" is cast as controlling all the puppet-governments of the world and responsible for every war throughout history. "The Jews stood behind the French and the communist revolutions", "The Jews stood behind World War I, so as to wipe out the Islamic Caliphate", "The Jews stood behind World War II where they collected immense benefits from trading with war materials", "The Jews inspired the establishment of the United Nations and Security Council ... in order to rule the world by their intermediary", "There was no war that broke out anywhere without their fingerprints on it"? (more here)
ZOA TO OBAMA: DON'T TALK TO HAMAS JTZ (hat tip TRK)
Some well-known former U.S. officials, including a few who endorsed or advised President Obama during the campaign, have sent a letter to the president encouraging him to talk to Hamas.
The Boston Globe reported earlier this month that former Federal Reserve chairman Paul Volcker -- who is an adviser to the White House but on the economy, not foreign policy -- and former national security advisers Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski -- whose endorsement was sought by Obama and who served as a surrogate for the candidate on a conference call for Democrats Abroad -- are "urging the Obama administration to talk with leaders of Hamas to determine whether the militant group can be persuaded to disarm and join a peaceful Palestinian government, a major departure from current US policy."
Also among the nine signatories was former Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.), who traveled to the Middle East with Obama last summer.Other names included "former House International Relations Committee chairman Lee Hamilton, a Democrat; former United Nations ambassador Thomas Pickering from the first Bush administration; former World Bank president James Wolfensohn; former U.S. trade representative in the Ford administration Carla Hills; Theodore Sorensen, former special counsel to President John F. Kennedy; and former Republican senator ... Nancy Kassebaum Baker."
[...]
Talking to Hamas, which the State Department has designated a terrorist organization, would mark a dramatic reversal for the US government. Longstanding US policy has stipulated that before engaging in any talks, Hamas must renounce violence, recognize Israel, and agree to all previous agreements signed by Palestinian negotiators.
"I see no reason not to talk to Hamas," said Scowcroft, who was national security adviser to President George H.W. Bush.
Siegman said the letter, which was handed to Obama by Volcker but has not been made public, said the administration should "at least explore the possibility" that Hamas, which took control of the Palestinian territory of Gaza after elections in 2006, might be willing to transition into a purely political party and join with its rival, Fatah, which holds the Palestinian presidency in the West Bank. ...
In a press release entitled "ZOA to Obama: Do Not Deal with Nazi-Like Hamas," ZOA national president Morton Klein responds:
The advice being offered to President Obama by several advisers, many of them with a long record of hostility to Israel, that he should deal with Hamas, is based on the extraordinarily naïve or malign idea that a bloodthirsty group of terrorists can become responsible and acceptable peace partners provided that they utter the right words on a few occasions when the cameras are rolling.
“Do these Obama advisers not recall that we went through the same charade with Yasser Arafat years ago? Then we were asking of Arafat, as we are asking Hamas now, to utter the right words about renouncing terror, accepting Israel and renouncing incitement to hatred and murder in order to bestow recognition and legitimacy on him. Arafat did renounce terrorism, accept Israel’s right to exist and even signed an agreement to that effect, yet he immediately continued terrorism, repeatedly called for Israel’s destruction and continued incitement.
“So look where this policy of demanding words got us. Further back in history, in 1938, we have another example where words meant nothing. We granted Hitler negotiations and huge concessions when he simply uttered phony words of peace that in the end consumed Czechoslovakia – and we ended up with a world war and the Holocaust.
“In short, getting career haters and terrorists to say certain words, or even sign certain agreements, is not a policy because, when they do, it means nothing. Therefore, even if Hamas uttered the few words that we’re asking of them, the result would be the same as it was when we dealt with Arafat. Words and signatures mean nothing when they come from murderers. Surely if such people are capable of murdering they are capable of lying. We are really asking Hamas to lie to us so we can give them recognition and financial aid.
“From where comes this idea that the most despicable terrorists can be rehabilitated by uttering mere words? Current U.S. conditions for talks with Hamas are already too elastic and thus meaningless – the rights words about renouncing terror, accepting past agreements and recognizing Israel would mean nothing even if Hamas was prepared to claim it was doing these things – which it doesn’t.
“If a serial murder like Charles Manson were to claim he had repented of his unspeakable crimes, would we suddenly drop all objections about, and feel comfortable with, our daughters dating him? If the Ku Klux Klan started issuing statements that it renounced hatred of African-Americans, would we start appointing their leaders to the boards of civil rights commissions? Of course not. The idea is laughable.
“If President Obama follows this advice, it will only result in a victory for Islamist terrorism, including the most murderous Palestinian elements, and help prolong the conflict. U.S. policy should have the over-arching goal of bringing the Palestinians to see their non-acceptance and murderous hostility towards Israel as wrong and counter-productive, not something that may be indulged in while earning a seat at the negotiating table. ...“We urge President Obama to repudiate the notion of dealing with Hamas, which would only harm all the President’s objectives in the Middle East – to foster political moderation in the Middle East, to fight and oppose terror groups and to create the conditions for a peace settlement."
UPDATE: It's not just the Jews ........... it's anyone:
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – A Gaza-based human rights group is calling on Hamas to investigate the beating death of a Palestinian man in the militant group's custody.
The Palestinian Center for Human Rights says Jamil Assaf died Wednesday after he was beaten to death by security forces belonging to Hamas, the Islamic group ruling Gaza.
The rights group says a forensic report shows he was harshly beaten and died of kidney failure.
Assaf's family says their son was arrested in early March.
The group said Assaf is the fifth to die in detention since Hamas overran Gaza in June 2007. During the same period, al-Haq, another Palestinian rights group, says four people have died in custody in the West Bank, which is ruled by Hamas rival Fatah of President Mahmoud Abbas.
