Obama representatives meeting with Hamas?

Israel voiced its fury at Switzerland Wednesday after learning that Swiss diplomats had met a Hamas delegation led by hardliner Mahmud al-Zahar in Geneva in June during a research institute conference.

"We are angry, since Hamas is still considered as a terrorist organization by the European Union, even if Switzerland is not an E.U. member," Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said.

"By officially receiving a Hamas delegation, Switzerland is not placing itself among those who support moderation," he said...

Israel and the West consider Hamas, a group sworn to the destruction of the Jewish state, a terrorist outfit.

That may be true, but the Swiss diplomats weren't the only ones who met with the terrorists in Geneva:

From the Washington Post - Thursday, July 16:

To Hamas officials Bassem Naim and Mahmoud al-Zahar, a recent meeting in Switzerland with a former senior U.S. diplomat represented an opening in relations with the Obama administration, and a path to easing the Islamist group's isolation.

"I hope it will be the beginning of addressing some of the mistakes of the last three years," Naim said of his talks with Thomas R. Pickering, a former undersecretary of state and U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. "This was a first meeting to investigate the positions in general terms of both parties without any commitment on any side."

U.S. officials say they see the previously undisclosed June meeting between Pickering and the two senior Hamas officials differently. They said Pickering had not been asked to approach Hamas and had no official standing; U.S. officials learned of the meeting only afterward. Policy toward the Islamist group, they said, remains what it was under President George W. Bush: that Hamas is a terrorist organization with which the United States will not even sanction a meeting.

Before Hamas can participate in peace talks, "we have made it clear, both publicly and privately, through all kinds of pronouncements, that we would expect Hamas to recognize Israel and renounce violence and agree to abide by prior agreements," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Wednesday in Washington....

Pickering, co-chair of the nonprofit International Crisis Group, would not comment...

Pickering "would not comment." Hmmm, I wonder why.......

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