Obama and Hamas

I was happy to read the frontpage headline in today's Guardian: "Obama camp ready to open up dialogue with Hamas". A new strategy that is to be welcomed.

George Bush has condemned Hamas from his Washington pulpit, but won't step outside it. I have hope that Obama is a braver and bolder man. Isolating Hamas, as if the power behind the movement was vermin and not people, has not worked.

I was amazed and moved that Jeremy Paxman actually managed to get a Hamas spokesman to say at the very end of an interview via telephone link on Newnight on Tuesday that they would stop rocket fire if Israel stopped. That is a leap forward! All I had been hearing from Hamas up until then was that they would carry on regardless. Imagine what could happen if they were involved in diplomatic negotiations on par with Isreal.

It is good news that Obama is "widely thought" to want to "adopt a more even-handed approach", as the Guardian report states, when he is President.