Joe Klein, who has in the past boldly declared himself “not a big fan” of Hamas leader Khaled Meshal, sits down with the terror group’s commander in chief for an interview in the wake of Obama’s speech:
Meshal refused to make concessions on any of the points Obama mentioned–renouncing the use of violence (although he did say that Hamas was willing to discuss a formal ceasefire), recognizing the state of Israel or the prior commitments made by the Palestinian Authority to a peace process.
But Klein was able to find areas of agreement with this mass-murderer:
Khaled Meshal wants to know what sort of influence the U.S. will bring to bear against Israeli settlement-building. It’s a good question.
Klein is one of my favorite bloggers if only because the invective he summons for his political adversaries is so delightfully over the top. He has called me everything from a blog-thug to a pistolero to, my personal favorite, a Niagara of ignorance. But for the leader of Hamas, on the topic of how best to coerce and sanction a recalcitrant democratic ally in order to appease a genuinely thuggish terrorist group, all Klein can summon is ‘good question.’
