Terrorist Organization Hamas prepared to chat with Obama

[Esmoreit]

Jackson50 said:

Esmoreit said:
I'd say screw protocol, and let's talk despite past occurances and opinions. Especially the latter can only be elaborated upon and perhaps changed through direct talk.

I mean, no one has ever tried it really with Hamas... let's try it now that they are open to it. They've announced a ceasefire so use this hopefull opportunity to drag some additional prospects out of it. Any progress in that region is a welcome one.

It would set a bad precedent if we opened dialogue with Hamas, a terrorist group, before it met certain requirements. Besides, before the Palestinian-Israeli conflict can be resolved, we must solve the Fatah-Hamas conflict. That is why Hamas' decision to skip the reconciliation meetings in Egypt was disheartening. Hopefully, Hamas decides to abandon its policy of violence and accept its position as a responsible political entity. 

 

This is kinda like a "what came first: chicken or egg?" story but I'd say that to solve the Hamas/fatah conflict Obama/ the Americans (actually, not just the Americans but also representatives of from the EU, Russias perhaps, etc) need to speak with Hamas.

Can we then assume that they will cease hostilities before the end of Barracks term? I don't think so. There's a constant spiral of violence there. I mean, after a ceasefire some local hamas supporter out of anger or whatever decides to go rogue and fire a few rocket on Israelian ground. Israel responds by blazing through a few refugee camps which instigates anger amongst Hamas who retaliates in full.

On the other hand, during a ceasefire Israel at times takes the liberty to invade the westbank for instance to block tunnels after which Hamas responds with rocketfire (this was a few days ago by the way.)

The world cannot expect any of both sides to stop on their own before peacetalks are underway. So I'd say, don't knock it before trying it. Just go in there, while rockets are flying to both sides of the border for all I care and get talking. See if it leads anywhere and perhaps we can build upon those talks to set fair precedents then.