Report: Obama administration plans negotiatations with Hamas

If you are willing to talk – which means negotiation – with terrorists, how do you start the conversation? Remember the Hamas charter is quite specific about it’s position on an Israeli state, it should not exist. If the Obama administration wants to negotiate, will Hamas be required to first ditch the language in their own charter?

That would be a precondition.

For those interested, here is some language taken directly from the Hamas charter from August of 1988, from the Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas). Reference link one, two.

Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it. …

The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up.

There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors.

After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying.

Atlas Shrugs provides us with this

Hamas boobytraps civilian homes, boobytrap dolls, fire missiles from schools, use mosques as arsenals, and fire machine guns into a party of Gazan revelers playing music and Obambi is going to talk to these blood hungry neanderthals? Strap yourself in folks …… this lefty maroon is going to get our asses kicked. Big time.

When Obambi was silent on Israel’s self defense I thought it was a low, lefty way to play it. He waited. He waited until he erroneously thought Israel had fired on a school. Only then did the snake slither out with a statement about “the loss of civilian life in Gaza and in Israel being a source of deep concern” for him .[note Gaza first] The thing is, it was Hamas that bombed that school – and Hamas only targets civilian Jews. Jews out their own lives at risk to avoid civilian casualties. Did Obambi address that?

She’s reacting to this article in the UK Guardian.

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

The incoming Obama administration is prepared to abandon George 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 state department has designated Hamas a terrorist organisation, and in 2006 ­Congress passed a law banning US financial aid to 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, 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.

“This is going to be an administration that is committed to negotiating with ­critical parties on critical issues,” the source said.

You have to ask the question. Why bother sitting down – and starting even low-level negotiations – with a group that has so clearly laid out their position?

Allah over at Hot Air has more, and notes the clear distinction between Obama’s statements in April 2008 and the report – from three different sources – that low level talks will be initiated.

Gateway Pundit is thrilled too.

You can not negotiate with evil, and you’re not going to get evil to sit down for an anger management session with Dr. Phil either.

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Steve McGough

Steve's a part-time conservative blogger. Steve grew up in Connecticut and has lived in Washington, D.C. and the Bahamas. He resides in Connecticut, where he’s comfortable six months of the year.

4 Comments

  1. Erik from WH on January 8, 2009 at 5:04 pm

    I really applaud the Obama administration for being willing to talk to these guys.  It can only help, it is not going to hurt.  Regardless of their beliefs you need to sit down at the table and talk and work out their differences. This is how civilized people resolve their differences.

    -Erik



    • Steve McGough on January 9, 2009 at 3:35 am

      Erik,

      We can agree to disagree on this one. When the starting point for Hamas is that Israel must not exist – and the certainly don't move from that position – there is no reason to sit down until they agree to preconditions. Like agreeing they can exist. I can spit out a bunch of analogies, like negotiation with a child molester, but we've already been to the negotiation table many times with these terrorists in various ways. They do not abide to past agreements, so why bother?



  2. Rick-WH on January 8, 2009 at 5:12 pm

    We should continue our policy of not having discussions with Hamas and other similar political organizations.  Hamas does not recognize Israel's fundamental right to exist, despite its creation by the United Nations in 1947.  On that point, Hamas has made it clear that are not flexible.  For years, Hamas has terrotized Israel's citizens, disregarding international law. 

    Talking to them is a total waste of time.



    • Wayne SW on January 9, 2009 at 6:06 pm

      Sure, let's get a sit down with Hamas. We can invite the Taliban, Iran  and Al Quida also.  We'll have tea and crumpets.  Sure,  set some preconditions and say,  Pretty pretty please with sugar on top and ask:

      Hamas:  stop firing rockets into Israel and allow Israel to exist.

      Taliban:  Educate Woman and allow them to show their faces and stop kiling innocents

      Al Quida:  Why Can't We All Just Get Along.  We forgiuve you for 911

      Iran:  Nukes, sure…let us help you…but don't use them as weapons.

      Remember:  Everyone, Play Nice, so Obama and Erik can be happy.

      Erik, seriously now, the key word to  reflect the flaw in your post is "civilized."  The terrorist organizations you want to get chummy with are not civilized.



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