Israel reverberates with news Obama's aides held pre-election talks with Hamas

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By Stan Goodenough
November 11, 2008

Less than a week after Barack Obama won the US presidential elections, during which he vowed not to meet with Hamas before the terror group renounced terrorism and recognized Israel's right to exist, the news was being flashed around Israel that, indeed, Obama's aides had held secret, pre-election meetings with leaders of the group in the Gaza Strip, which is under Hamas control.

According to reports on Ynetnews, The Jerusalem Post and Ha'aretz, Hamas terrorists established contact with Obama's team via the Internet, and then arranged to met with some members of that team in the weeks prior to November 4.

Ahmed Yusuf, a political advisor to Hamas' Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh, reportedly disclosed this information to the London-based Arabic paper Al-Hayat, which ran the story on Tuesday.

Contacted for a response, Obama's Senior Foreign Policy Adviser Denis McDonough told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday "This assertion is just plain false."

On Monday, the Jerusalem-based website Israel Today reported that a top Obama advisor on Middle East affairs had been dispatched to the Middle East in violation of the president-elect's pre-election promise that Robert Malley would not play any role in a future Obama administration.

"According to a report in Middle East Newsline, Obama dispatched Malley to Egypt and Syria late last week with a message that the he intends to mend and bolster relations with both nations, and to give greater weight to their concerns regarding regional conflicts than did President George W. Bush," wrote Israel Today.

The publication reminded its readers that, "during the Democratic Party primaries, Obama was lashed by critics for having Malley on his team after the latter admitted to being in regular contact with Hamas as part of his work with the International Crisis Group."

At the time, Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt had quickly responded that Malley had provided "informal advice to the campaign in the past," but insisted that he had "no formal role in the campaign and he will not play any role in the future."

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