 Zbigniew Brzezinski |
JERUSALEM – A group of former senior American officials and one current top adviser to the Obama administration are petitioning the U.S. president to open talks with the Hamas terrorist organization, believing the group can be part of the Palestinian peace process.
Paul Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman who was selected by Obama to head his new economic recovery advisory board, reportedly signed a letter advocating dialogue with Hamas. The letter was also signed by nine other Washington veterans, according to a report in the Boston Globe.
Other signatories include Brent Scowcroft, national security adviser to George Bush Sr., and Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was President Jimmy Carter’s security adviser. Brzezinski’s pro-Hamas views have been aired publicly in newspaper opinion pieces and policies speeches.
“I see no reason not to talk to Hamas,” Scowcroft told the Globe.
“The main gist (of the letter) is that you need to push hard on the Palestinian peace process,” Scowcroft said. “Don’t move it to the end of your agenda and say you have too much to do. And the U.S. needs to have a position, not just hold their coats while they sit down.”
Other signatories of the letter reportedly included former House International Relations Committee chairman Lee Hamilton; former United Nations ambassador Thomas Pickering; former World Bank president James Wolfensohn; former U.S. trade representative Carla Hills; Theodore Sorensen, former special counsel to President John F. Kennedy; and former Republican Sens. Chuck Hagel and Nancy Kassebaum Baker.
The Telegraph of London reported the group is expected to be granted an audience at the White House as early as this week to make their case to Obama that lines of communication should be opened with Hamas.
Just last week, WND reported there was concern among Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah organization the Obama administration already changed its attitude toward Hamas and may be ready to end the terrorist group’s isolation.
“Three years of the siege against Hamas is ending,” said a top PA negotiator, speaking from Ramallah on condition his name be withheld. “There is a new policy in the Obama administration regarding Hamas. We are concerned Hamas is starting to be a legitimate player in the equation of the Mideast and the PA.”
The negotiator met earlier this month with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Asked by WND whether Clinton or any other U.S. official expressed direct support for opening U.S. dialogue with Hamas, the PA negotiator replied, “No. But there are troubling signs.”
He pointed to recent U.S. support for a unity government between Hamas and Fatah.
“This is the first time the U.S. has supported such a unity government. There was no objection from the U.S. about Hamas joining the PA,” he said.
He also pointed to Sen. John Kerry’s visit last month to the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and the Massachusetts lawmaker’s reported acceptance of a letter from the Islamist group as “legitimizing Hamas.”
Kerry, who heads the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, became the most senior U.S. government official to enter Gaza since 2000. The senator announced his trip – which focused on U.N. facilities in Gaza – did not signal any change in U.S. policy toward Hamas, while it was reported he accepted a letter from the group to deliver to President Obama. A Kerry spokesman said the senator was not aware the letter, provided to him by a U.N. employee, originated with Hamas.
Mushir al-Massri, a Hamas spokesman and parliament member, told WND from Gaza: “Kerry can say there is no change, but Hamas controls Gaza. It’s very important that he came here. I hope next time the U.S. can more openly support Hamas.”
Hamas’ official charter calls for the murder of Jews and the destruction of Israel. The Islamist group is responsible for scores of suicide bombings, shootings and rocket attacks aimed at Jewish civilians.
A spokesman for the State Department told WND yesterday there is no change in the U.S. policy of isolating Hamas.
Al-Massri, however, claimed Hamas is in direct communication with members of Congress.
“We are speaking to U.S. congressmen,” he claimed, “also members of the European Parliament.”
Ahmed Yousef, Hamas’ chief political adviser in Gaza, also told WND his Islamist group was in contact with members of the U.S. Congress, but he wouldn’t divulge any names.
Official U.S. policy supports sidestepping Hamas, but the group has been making major inroads toward ending its isolation.
In January, Tony Blair, the former British prime minister and Mideast envoy for the international Quartet, which includes the U.S., told a London newspaper Hamas should be included in the “peace process.”
Following his remarks, Yousef claimed to WND that Hamas had been in direct contact with Blair for months.
Blair’s sister-in-law, Lauren Booth, was part of a British delegation that held a solidarity meeting in Gaza yesterday with Hamas leaders, including the terrorist group’s former prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh.
Some trace Hamas’ claim of newfound international dialogue to Jimmy Carter’s visit to the region in April, when the former president met with top Hamas officials.
Immediately after Carter’s meeting, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner confirmed Paris held talks with Hamas, and Norway’s deputy foreign minister, Raymond Johansan, admitted meeting with Hamas leader Ismail Haniya.
Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum confirmed to WND that Hamas last year “met a delegation from the European Parliament, from France, and from Italy, and Norway, and from the EU parliament and from Carter.”
“All of these are supporting Hamas, and they have a plan to support Palestinian rights and interests,” Barhoum said, speaking from Gaza.
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WND Staff