McCain Fires Back on Hamas Charges

The furor over remarks made by President Bush in front of Israel's parliament hit a fever pitch today, as the self-identified victim of the president's comments, Sen. Barack Obama, traded barbs with Sen. John McCain over the alleged insult to Obama's judgment and ability to protect the country as president. The Political Machine covered Obama's response to the White House and McCain here.

The McCain campaign released a statement late in the day accusing Sky News interviewer, and former Assistant Secretary of State in the Clinton Administration, Jamie Rubin, of lying about McCain's position with respect to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas in an op-ed he penned for the Washington Post. McCain has been referencing comments made by a Hamas spokesman that the Iranian-backed terror group is rooting for an Obama victory in the presidential race. Titled "Hypocrisy on Hamas," Rubin's op-ed accuses McCain of changing his position on Hamas, based on one question and answer from an interview Rubin conducted with McCain in 2006.

[Rubin]: "Do you think that American diplomats should be operating the way they have in the past, working with the Palestinian government if Hamas is now in charge?"

McCain: "They're the government; sooner or later we are going to have to deal with them, one way or another, and I understand why this administration and previous administrations had such antipathy towards Hamas because of their dedication to violence and the things that they not only espouse but practice, so . . . but it's a new reality in the Middle East. I think the lesson is people want security and a decent life and decent future, that they want democracy. Fatah was not giving them that."

Rubin says the exchange proves that McCain once espoused Obama's more nuanced position with respect to meeting with America's enemies. But, as the McCain campaign pointed out in its response, the impression readers would have gotten of McCain's position would have been radically different if Rubin had reported McCain's answer to his very next question.


Rubin followed up with a direct question to McCain about whether McCain believed that the United States should engage directly with Hamas through regular diplomatic channels.

Rubin: "So should the United States be dealing with that new reality through normal diplomatic contacts to get the job done for the United States?"

McCain: "I think the United States should take a step back, see what they do when they form their government, see what their policies are, and see the ways that we can engage with them, and if there aren't any, there may be a hiatus. But I think part of the relationship is going to be dictated by how Hamas acts, not how the United States acts."

McCain's answer to Rubin's follow-up question tends to confirm his position that the United States should not meet with or engage Hamas diplomatically unless Hamas meets certain conditions based on their policies and behaviors.

McCain got an assist from CNN early this evening, when the network reported on an interview it conducted with McCain, at exactly the same spot that Rubin's interview took place. McCain is even wearing the same clothes as in the Rubin interview, and he clearly states that the United States' policy of non-engagement with the terror group would not change unless and until Hamas renounced its desire to bring about the destruction of Israel.

McCain: "Well, hopefully, that Hamas now that they are going to govern, will be motivated to renounce this commitment to the extinction of the state of Israel. Then we can do business again, we can resume aid, we can resume the peace process. It's very, very important though that they renounce this commitment."

McCain clearly has not changed his position, however, he was the target of some very slanted and shoddy reporting by Mr. Rubin.

Lost in all the political back and forth over the issue is the fact that in his Knesset speech, President Bush did not mention Sen. Obama by name. Nor did he mention the Democratic Party. In fact, there was only one person that was directly referred to by the president in the speech. In describing the champions of the ideology of appeasement prior to World War II, the president mentioned a United States Senator who remarked upon the German invasion of Poland, "Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler. All of this could have been avoided." The irony of Obama's strong reaction to comments in which he was not named is that the person singled out by the president for uttering those famous words was former Senator from Idaho William E. Borah, a Republican.