White House Reaches Out to hamas

It turns out that while in Switzerland, hamas met with former US diplomat Thomas Pickering.

Ex-U.S. Diplomat Talks With Hamas
Officials of Islamist Group See an Opening, but Washington Says Nothing's Changed

Israeli soldiers stand atop and next to a tank near their country's border with Gaza. The Islamist group Hamas has controlled Gaza since June 2007. (By Tsafrir Abayov -- Associated Press)

By Howard Schneider and Glenn Kessler
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, July 16, 2009


JERUSALEM, July 15 -- To Hamas officials Bassem Naim and Mahmoud al-Zahar, a recent meeting in Switzerland with a former senior U.S. diplomat represented an opening in relations with the Obama administration, and a path to easing the Islamist group's isolation.

"I hope it will be the beginning of addressing some of the mistakes of the last three years," Naim said of his talks with Thomas R. Pickering, a former undersecretary of state and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "This was a first meeting to investigate the positions in general terms of both parties without any commitment on any side."

U.S. officials say they see the previously undisclosed June meeting between Pickering and the two senior Hamas officials differently. They said Pickering had not been asked to approach Hamas and had no official standing; U.S. officials learned of the meeting only afterward. Policy toward the Islamist group, they said, remains what it was under President George W. Bush: that Hamas is a terrorist organization with which the United States will not even sanction a meeting.

They are full of shit. Pickering did not do this on his own. This is in line with the obama administration's outreach to dictatorships and terror states. This administration, in its moral bankruptcy really believes that it is Israel and not Arab-islamic rejectionism and hatred which has been the obstacle to peace. It continues to treat the viewpoint of terrorists and dictators with respect while showing contempt toward the concerns and opinions of our democratic ally, Israel, and denying it the right to have input on matters concerning its own fate.

Meshal’s speech, delivered from Damascus, the Syrian capital, was considered an overture to Obama. “The purpose of the speech was to convince the West that Hamas is a partner for dialogue,” retired Israeli Brig. Gen. Shlomo Brom, director of the Israeli-Palestinian Relations Program at Tel Aviv University, wrote in a recent paper. “The speech will make it easier for elements in Western Europe and within Obama’s administration that support dialogue with Hamas to advance their position.”

hamas realizes it has a perfect sucker in the White House.