Validation

It was nice to read Charles Krauthammer's column in this AM's newspaper.  I think he's one of the most intelligent writers out there, almost always with brilliant insights and solutions.  Oh, he's critical, too, but not just to be critical.  He identifies what is wrong, what is stupid, etc.

It was esp nice to see him validate something I wrote the other day.  I think it was last Wed or Thur.  Krauthammer takes aim at Sec of State John Kerry, calling him "the clueless secretary."  Although I didn't identify Kerry by name, I did have the same concerns and criticisms Krauthammer has about our "clueless" policy toward the current Gaza violence.

Krauthammer has more specifics; he has access to more sources than I do and he's a whole lot smarter than I am.  Still, he hammers at Kerry (and, in essence, the Obama Administration) for not only appeasing terrorists, that is, Hamas, but for rewarding them for terrorism.  He cites several cease-fires brokered by Arab states, ones that are amenable to them and to the PLA.  What those proposals don't do is cave in to all of the demands made by Hamas.  (Need I beat home the point again, a terrorist organization?)  In fact, Hamas wouldn't receive anything--no rewards--for starting this latest of their wars.

As I noted last week, Hamas has very perceptively figured out that, if it plays the victim card (even if it is the instigator, hardly the victim) the US and many others in the West will side with it and demand that Israel meet what Hamas wants.  That the Israelis are merely defending themselves is rarely recognized (or even considered) by Americans in Washington.  Victims!  That's the key word and Hamas plays many Americans like a fiddle.

"Clueless?"  Krauthammer doesn't address why Kerry (and the Obama Adminsitration) is "clueless."  I guess that it's not because they are stupid, but they might be.  (Remember how the Dems and Left made fun of W. Bush, calling him stupid for having just a C or so average at Yale?  Well, Kerry's GPA was the same at Harvard.  Having had an Ivy League education myself, I'm not willing to call either man stupid.  I know, again from personal experience, how seeing a "C" on a paper often evoked a sigh of relief on my--and many others students I knew--face.  Whew!)  But I really don't think so.  That, then, just leaves one other explanation.  Kerry (and Clinton before him) and the Obama Administration are deliberately caving in to Hamas.  They are deliberately rewarding terrorists and their terrorist actions.

It reminds me of years ago, when Yasir ("That's My Baby") Arafat made all these outlandish demands of the Israelis.  He was nonplussed when each of his demands were met.  It actually took him a couple of days to reject the Israeli concessions--to his own demands!  Getting concessions, of course, was not the objective of the PLO.  And, that's not the objective of Hamas, either, although the Obama Administration (and, well, most recent American Presidents) seem more than willing to see Hamas get concessions.

So, why is American foreign policy so blind to this strategy, this ploy, first by the PLO, now Hamas, then.....?