I guess our political leaders didn't get the memo.
The Guardian is reporting that the Obama administration is willing to open back channel communications with Hamas.
There is no talk of Obama approving direct diplomatic negotiations with Hamas early on in his administration, but he is being urged by advisers to initiate low-level or clandestine approaches, and there is growing recognition in Washington that the policy of ostracising Hamas is counter-productive.
A tested course would be to start contacts through Hamas and the US intelligence services - similar to the secret process through which the US engaged with the PLO in the 1970s. Israel did not become aware of the contacts until much later.
The howls of outrage should arrive any moment. Obama, palling around with terrorists again. Sarah Palin was right. I can hear it now. It's the sort of thing the uber-right used to slam Pierre Trudeau with.
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