Despite official Israeli government resolutions not to negotiate with either terrorists or rival states that support terrorism, the government of Israel has now officially acknowledged that it is actively involved in talks with both Hamas and Syria and is seeking possible peace deals with both parties. Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon has confirmed that the Jewish state is involved in such talks with Hamas. And Israel pledged to resume fuel exports to the Gaza Strip on Monday as a possible move to help encourage Hamas to work towards both a ceasefire and a resolution of the abduction of Israeli soldier Gilad Shilit.
United pressure on Hamas to renounce violence and recognize the state of Israel from the United Nations, EU, the U.S. and Russia may also have influenced Hamas to accept political reality if in intends to remain in political control of the Gaza Strip and represent a portion of the Palestinian people. The political rival of Hamas, Fatah represents another portion of the Palestinian people and Fatah continues to have more politically realistic and productive relations with Israel.
Egypt has been playing a helpful role in the negotiations between Israel and Hamas in recent days. And the NATO state of Turkey has been involved in the possible peace negotiations between Israel and Syria, which might work towards more normalized relations relations between the two longtime political and military rivals.
In recent days, Bush-McCain have both recently sought to make a major campaign issue of the fact that Democratic candidate Barack Obama would at least like to open some channel of communication with Iran to help resolve some of the many serious issues between the U.S. and Iran. Bush-McCain have attempted to make this into another phony issue questioning the national security and foreign policy insights of Senator Obama.
However, as the new revelations of Israel actively seeking to negotiate peace with both Hamas and Syria prove, it is absolutely important to open some line of communication with rivals to prevent serious conflicts. Colin Powell, James Baker and many others with strong foreign policy credentials all accept the political reality of at least having some line of communication with Iran, while the Bush-McCain policy of not at least holding some talks with your rivals seems to fly against political reality.
Comments (6)
How about a link to that "official government" statement that they are talking directly to Hamas ...
Otherwise your whole post appears to be made out of whole cloth ... lots of interesting wishfull thinking ...
1. Posted by Jeff | May 23, 2008 1:02 PM
Posted on May 23, 2008 13:02
How about being a little more polite in your requests, Jeff.
And here's a quote and a link. Learn to use Google.
2. Posted by Lee Ward | May 23, 2008 1:25 PM
Posted on May 23, 2008 13:25
"Learn to use Google ?" ... wow ...
What if I ended up with the wrong article ?
next time I'll say please ... :) nice enough ?
Thanks for the link ... I guess the posting standards here at WB Blue are different than I'm used to seeing ...
3. Posted by Jeff | May 23, 2008 4:01 PM
Posted on May 23, 2008 16:01
After reading the article you linked I am still wondering why you mentioned Syria ...
Not mentioned in your linked article ...
Its so much easier to make things up isn't it :)
4. Posted by Jeff | May 23, 2008 4:04 PM
Posted on May 23, 2008 16:04
You still haven't learned to use Google?
Link:
"Its so much easier to make things up isn't it :)"
And you haven't learned manners either, so this is your second warning. Once more and you're banned.
5. Posted by Lee Ward | May 23, 2008 5:10 PM
Posted on May 23, 2008 17:10
Jeff, it was indeed a major breaking news story on CNN this week when the story broke that Israel was involved in talks with Syria, possiby to normalize relations, and NATO member Turkey was being used as a third party agent to help promote the talks. Further as Lee has pointed out to you in his link, it was the Israeli press that reported that Israeli Vice Premier Haim Ramon confirmed the negotiations with Hamas. I see no room here for you to doubt the truth of either major peace talk event.
Contrast this Bush-McCain who both prefer not to talk to Iran and demand an end to their military promoting violence against American soldiers in Iraq. The United States should certainly feel strong enough to stand up to Iran and make certain demands as well as seek to improve relations between the two powers to prevent more problems. Negotiations with North Korea were aimed at halting their nuclear weapons program. The U.S. has no leverage with a nation unless we confront them in talks. Bush-McCain seem unwilling to do this. Barack Obama wants to return the United States back to a foreign policy where we talk with strength to our rivals and work out differences. Such diplomacy prevented WWIII during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis with the old Soviet Union.
Both the Soviet Union and the United States were winners with this diplomacy. Nuclear missiles only 90 miles from the U.S. in San Crystalball, Cuba were not installed, and the U.S. removed nuclear missiles aimed at the U.S.S.R that were in Turkey in an officially delinked peace arrangement that Robert Kennedy personally handled. The civilian populations of both nations were given greater safety because the two nations used diplomacy and a great nuclear danger to both nations was rolled back. With Iran, the Bush-McCain weakness in not talking is only killing American servicemen. Wacky Iranian President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is not the strongest political figure in Iran, a group of ruling clerics are, and there are some relative moderates or pragmatics among this group who are worthy of having some line of communication with so that both nations can publicly air their differences. Ronald Reagan even requested to address the Russian people directly and helped to diffuse worsening relations between the two nations, giving Gorbachev more political capital at home to lead the nation towards more openess and reforms. In the same way, Iran might be opened up more and reformed. Nixon talked with China, and look at the good results. The Bush-McCain policy of not talking to Iran and threatening possible war is simply not working.
Bush-McCain may think that not talking with your rivals like Iran is a sign of manhood or strength on the part of the United States. But it is really a dangerous and silly foreign policy that only invites distrust and possible violence between the two states. Iran is simply too big of a player in the MidEast to ignore and not have some channel of communication with.
6. Posted by Paul Hooson | May 23, 2008 6:25 PM
Posted on May 23, 2008 18:25