Obama Going Soft on Terrorism?

This report from the Guardian is not a good sign. It appears Obama intends to open up links, however quiet, to Hamas.

I completely fail to see why Hamas merits this. They have made no moves toward renouncing terrorism and or toward recognizing Israel’s right to exist. Until they do, I much prefer this method of dealing with Hamas.

Hot Air has more on this, including a reminder of this Obama campaign promise:

“We must not negotiate with a terrorist group intent on Israel’s destruction. We should only sit down with Hamas if they renounce terrorism, recognize Israel’s right to exist and abide by past agreements.”
“Hamas is not a state. Hamas is a terrorist organization.”

Well, he got that right on the campaign trail at least. But he apparently intends to treat Hamas as legitimate anyway. If so, look for additional weakness and softness on terrorism elsewhere with dire consequences. Such misjudgement will not be confined to Hamas. Carterite and Clintonite policies on (not) dealing with terrorism were utter failures. I don’t expect any revival of said policies to have a different result.

Hate Bush all you like, but give him credit in one area. He knows how to deal with terrorists.

Obama apparently does not.


MORE: James Robbins makes a very prescient point:

Whether one agrees with the notion of the U.S. opening a direct diplomatic channel to Hamas or not, talking about it right now is very poor timing. If nothing else it makes it appear that Hamas is being rewarded for its behavior in the past month. As well, discussing recognizing Hamas this way could have a negative effect on the ongoing negotiations over the fighting in Gaza. The Israelis have every right to be annoyed, or worse. What are these Obama leakers thinking? Amateur hour continues, as John Roche used to say.