“Obama’s comments have confirmed that there will be no change in the U.S. administration’s foreign policy on the Arab-Israeli conflict,” Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters in Gaza.
“The Democratic and Republican parties support totally the Israeli occupation at the expense of the interests and rights of Arabs and Palestinians,” he said.
“Hamas does not differentiate between the two presidential candidates, Obama and Mccain, because their policies regarding the Arab-Israel conflict are the same and are hostile to us, therefore we do have no preference and are not wishing for either of them to win,” Zuhri said.
Lumping McCain together with President Bush, Obama declared: "If they want a debate about protecting the United States of America, that's a debate I'm ready to win because George Bush and John McCain have a lot to answer for." He blamed Bush for policies that enhance the strength of terrorist groups such as Hamas and "the fact that al-Qaida's leadership is stronger than ever because we took our eye off the ball in Afghanistan," among other failings.
Come on, guys. Stop with the sophomoric he-said-she-said crap. You have the video from Sky News of McCain saying we should talk to Hamas. Just quote the damn video, it's posted below. It's a fact what McCain said. Don't write that Democrats "say," or Jamie Ruben says, that McCain said x y and z. McCain SAID it. You have the proof. Stop presenting facts as allegations, out of some twisted desire to be fair. You're not being fair, you're not being a journalist, when you quote lies you know to be untrue, or when you quote truths that you pretend are unconfirmed. Do your damn job. It's nuance, to be sure, but it's the difference between a reader walking away with "well, a Democrat claimed that, so it's probably not true" and a reader saying "wow, there's video, McCain must have actually said that."
In today's Washington Post, Jamie Rubin destroys the George Bush/John McCain attack on Obama over Hamas. McCain told Rubin that we were going to have to work with Hamas -- and McCain didn't mention any conditions. Now, this interview happened two years ago, so, in fairness, McCain might not remember, but he said it quite clearly:
But given his own position on Hamas, McCain is the last politician who should be attacking Obama. Two years ago, just after Hamas won the Palestinian parliamentary elections, I interviewed McCain for the British network Sky News's "World News Tonight" program. Here is the crucial part of our exchange:
I asked: "Do you think that American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past, working with the Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?"
McCain answered: "They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so . . . but it's a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that."
For some Europeans in Davos, Switzerland, where the interview took place, that's a perfectly reasonable answer. But it is an unusual if not unique response for an American politician from either party. And it is most certainly not how the newly conservative presumptive Republican nominee would reply today.
Given that exchange, the new John McCain might say that Hamas should be rooting for the old John McCain to win the presidential election. The old John McCain, it appears, was ready to do business with a Hamas-led government, while both Clinton and Obama have said that Hamas must change its policies toward Israel and terrorism before it can have diplomatic relations with the United States.
So while McCain was cavorting in Davos with all the other elites, he thought it was okay to work with Hamas. But now, McCain is on the attack over a manufactured issue. What a fraud.
Thanks to Clinton-appointee Rubin for finally getting this out. The debate's only been going on for weeks now - you couldn't have brought this up earlier?
Oops. That would make McCain a McHypocrite for blasting Obama for proposing the EXACT same thing McCain proposed only two years ago. But in all fairness to McCain, nearing the age of 72, maybe he simply can't remember his positions anymore. More in Jamie Ruben's op ed in Friday's Washington Post.
