Well, it is recess time and the CODELS are flowing. Interestingly, for the first time in 10 years, some of the lawmakers went to Gaza. Keith Ellison and Brian Baird were in Gaza today and so was John Kerry. George Mitchell is heading back this week. Folks in the region are watching to see if the US maintains its position of isolating Hamas from peace talks, as Israel wishes, or accepting their inclusion in a Palestinian unity government. Hamas even gave John Kerry a letter to take back to the President
More below the fold:
IS there a change in policy in the offing? One that revises the BUSH administrations support of ISrael's conditions for HAmas participation?
Kerry says no:
Sen. John Kerry (D) of Massachusetts headlined a trio of US congressmen traveling to Gaza today. United Nations officials in the coastal strip took the 2004 presidential candidate on a tour of the destruction from the 22-day war between Hamas and Israel that came to a close on Jan. 18.
But does his visit there – a rarity for any US lawmaker or official since Gaza militants attacked a US convoy in 2003 – signal a shift in US policy? It’s hard to say. While Senator Kerry has a close relationship with President Obama, an Israeli politician from the right-wing Likud party observed that the visit to Gaza doesn’t mean anything “because Kerry is a member of the Senate and does not represent the administration.”
Kerry himself says: “Let me make this clear, there is no change in policy.” The White House didn’t have any comment on the trip.
The House members:
With thousands of buildings damaged or destroyed during the military offensive and more than 1,300 Palestinians killed, there was much to take in.
Mr. Baird observed, “The amount of physical destruction and the depth of human suffering here is staggering.”
Mr. Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the US Congress, noted the lack of basic supplies such as food, water, and sanitation. He was, he said, particularly moved by stories that affected children: “No parent, or anyone who cares for kids, can remain unmoved by what Brian and I saw here.”
Christian Science Monitor
Kerry is going on to Syria next. Israel frequently uses Syrian negotiations as a safety valve to draw attention away from lack of progress in Palestinian issues. ISrael was confident that the Bush policy remained that Syrians exit from the " Axis of Evil" would require a severing of ties with Hezbollah and Iran. But then again, Syria is saying, we can be friends with with US and Iran, and it might even be helpful in acting as an interlocutor with Hamas..
Baird on the BBC today said that he saw the need for a Palestinian Unity government that included Hamas. And HAmas gave Kerry a letter.
The Palestinian group Hamas has sent a letter addressed to the US president via a US politician visiting Gaza, a senior UN official has said.
UN relief agency chief Karen Abu Zayd told the BBC the letter had been received by the UN and passed on.
She did not say if Senator John Kerry had accepted it, and there were no details about the letter's contents.
BBC
Is the US policy going to shift away from isolating Hamas and advocating for a unity government in Palestine? Should it? What does the letter contain? What do you hope it does? What do you think it does?