The Flood Gate that Obama opened

Call for Scrapping Conditions for Talking with Hamas

A group of former international peace negotiators on Thursday urged the world and Israel to abandon the policy of isolating Hamas and engage with the Islamist militant group.
(Times-UK)


UK: Egypt Best Placed to Talk to Hamas -Jonathan Wright

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that talking to Hamas was "the right thing to do," but Egypt and other parties were best placed to do it. Miliband said Egypt was acting on behalf of the whole world in its dealings with Hamas.
(Reuters)


Netanyahu Opposes Talks with a PA Government that Includes Hamas -Herb Keinon

Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to lobby Secretary of State Hillary Clinton next week against U.S. recognition of a Palestinian unity government that includes Hamas.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Zalman Shoval [pictured at right] said, "We shall try to convince our American friends that this is not something that would help the peace process, and that it would only make it easier for all sorts of other players - the Europeans and the Russians - to deal with Hamas."

Shoval said history had shown that when there was an amalgamation between a moderate and an extremist party, it was only a matter of time before the extremists called the shots, and that the end result of a Hamas-Fatah merger would not be a more moderate Palestinian political entity but a more radical one.
(Jerusalem Post)
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