Benson - Talking to Hamas, Talking to the Taliban

Pesach Benson..
Honest Reporting/Backspin..
09 February '12..


Rose-colored glasses are de rigueur in the Christian Science Monitor newsroom. With the US engaging the Taliban, this Monitor staff-ed wants to apply similar logic to Israel and Hamas:

President Obama was smart not to follow the example of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who warned against the Hamas-Fatah reconciliation deal. If the United States is willing to talk to the Taliban – even to the point of dropping its preconditions – then Israel should leave a door open to the possibility that Hamas is slowly accepting Israel’s right to exist under a two-state solution.

Whatever the White House calculus is, I wouldn’t be so quick to compare the two situations. It’s easier for Hamas to fire rockets at Israeli cities than it is for the Taliban to strike the US. That makes a different comfort level for dialogue.

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