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Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas' top political adviser in the Gaza Strip
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| By Israel Insider staff April 15, 2008 |
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On the eve of a planned meeting of its leader Khaled Meshaal with former President Jimmy Carter, the Hamas terrorist organization has expressed the "hope" that Senator Barack Hussein Obama will win the presidential elections and change America's foreign policy.
Even though Obama has said that he would not meet with Hamas unless it renounces violence and recognizes Israel, or becomes the recognized leadership of the Palestinians -- he has no qualms about holding talks with the leadership of Iran, Syria, and North Korea -- that doesn't seem to bother the Hamas leadership.
"We like Mr. Obama, and we hope that he will win the elections," Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas' top political adviser in the Gaza Strip, said in an exclusive interview with World Net Daily and with the John Batchelor Show on WABC Radio in New York.
He saw Obama's comments about Hamas as political posturing that was understandable to lull supporters of Israel before the election.
"I understand American politics and this is the season for elections and everybody tries to sound like he's a friend of the Israelis," he said. All that would change if Obama would get elected. "I hope Mr. Obama and the Democrats will change the political discourse.... I do believe [Obama] is like John Kennedy, a great man with a great principle. And he has a vision to change America to make it in a position to lead the world community, but not with humiliation and arrogance," Yousuf said, speaking from Gaza.
Obama was criticized last month after it was reported his church reprinted an opinion piece by Hamas defending terrorism as legitimate resistance, denying Israel's right to exist and comparing the terror group's official charter -- which calls for the murder of Jews and the eradication of Israel -- to the American Declaration of Independence. The Hamas piece was published on the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr.'s "Pastor's Page" in the Trinity United Church of Christ newsletter.
After U.S. Jewish groups issued statements of concern, Obama denounced the Hamas piece and distanced himself from his church's newsletter. But he would not disavow his anti-Israel, anti-American pastor. |
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