dagblog - Comments for "Kerry visits Gaza, shuns House delegation"

Yeah, there's a lot of

acanuck — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 08:15:12 +0000

In reply to Kerry visits Gaza, shuns House delegation

Yeah, there's a lot of guesswork on my part here. And there's an extra layer of smoke-and-mirrors here on top of the usual amount you can expect in the Mideast.

I wouldn't read so much into

Armchair Guerrilla — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 05:37:18 +0000

In reply to Kerry visits Gaza, shuns House delegation

I wouldn't read so much into it.

But I guess we'll see.

For the first time since Bill

acanuck — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:19:10 +0000

In reply to Kerry visits Gaza, shuns House delegation

For the first time since Bill Clinton was in office, U.S. legislators are asserting their right to set foot in Gaza and judge for themselves what's going on. That in itself is a sea change.
The claim that Olmert was unaware of Kerry's plan sounds to me like a veiled admission he couldn't talk him out of it.
That it's a powerful senator, with access to Obama's ear as well as his own forum, has to worry Israeli leaders.
Not what he'll say publicly (he has routinely backed Israel's right to self-defense) but what he might say privately to the president.
Stay tuned for more on this breaking story.

The above was meant as a

artappraiser — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:03:21 +0000

In reply to Kerry visits Gaza, shuns House delegation

The above was meant as a reply to CVille Dem's comment, and not the original post.

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And a P.S.:

This is an example of how things have to be done when dealing with an area governed by what the U.S. officially calls a terrorist organization: In a Letter, a Leader of Hamas Makes an Appeal to Obama. The letter was first given to U.N. officials who gave it to Kerry, as Kerry could not accept something directly from someone representing Hamas.

He's the Chairman of the

artappraiser — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 23:59:43 +0000

In reply to Kerry visits Gaza, shuns House delegation

He's the Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and is of the same party as the president and obviously fully behind the new president.

In Obama's Feb. 9 press conference, Obama clearly reiterated the official stance that Hamas is a terrorist organization. The day before, in the administration's first major foreign policy speech, given by Joe Biden in Munich on Feb. 7, Biden said In the near term, we must consolidate the cease-fire in Gaza by working with Egypt and others to stop smuggling, and developing an international relief and reconstruction effort that strengthens the Palestinian Authority, and not Hamas.

Even if Kerry wanted to act independently, to publicly say too much would be stepping on Obama's plans, whatever they are. But from what we know of how supportive he is of Obama, chances are very high that he had full instructions from the president's office on how much he should say and what he should do, and whether he should go at all.

Seems obvious to me that speaking up more would be against Obama's policy, not U.S. policy, that's what's going on here.

So why did Kerry bother to go

CVille Dem — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 17:43:13 +0000

In reply to Kerry visits Gaza, shuns House delegation

So why did Kerry bother to go at all? Can't this man step up to the plate about anything? What is wrong with speaking about his observations? Is that against US policy?