Tuesday, March 24, 2009
Obama Encouraging Terrorists
Despite sagging poll numbers, Obama is doing quite well among at least one of his core constituencies.
The link itself is to Al Arabiya's English-language news service, but a number of news stories around the world picked it up.
What does this mean on the ground? If Hamas believes that Israel is becoming isolated from its US support, and if Hamas believes that the US is likely to weigh in with at least a neutral stance, it has no incentive to grant concessions at the bargaining table with Israel, it solidifies its own support within Gaza and the occupied territories, it discredits the more moderate elements in Palestine, and it has every incentive to press its terror campaigns home, in hopes that Israel will be forced to make concessions of its own.
Splash, out
Jason
The exiled leader of the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas hailed Sunday the "new lexicon" U.S. President Obama used in relation to the Middle East, adding that an official overture towards his movement is only a matter of time.
"A new language towards the region is coming from President Obama. The challenge for everybody is for this to be the prelude for a genuine change in U.S. and European policies,” Khaled Meshaal told Italian daily La Repubblica in an interview published Sunday.
The Syria-based leader predicted that an "official" opening of U.S. and EU channels for dialogue with Hamas, listed as a terrorist organization by the European Union since 2003, is now "only a matter of time."
The link itself is to Al Arabiya's English-language news service, but a number of news stories around the world picked it up.
What does this mean on the ground? If Hamas believes that Israel is becoming isolated from its US support, and if Hamas believes that the US is likely to weigh in with at least a neutral stance, it has no incentive to grant concessions at the bargaining table with Israel, it solidifies its own support within Gaza and the occupied territories, it discredits the more moderate elements in Palestine, and it has every incentive to press its terror campaigns home, in hopes that Israel will be forced to make concessions of its own.
Splash, out
Jason
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