The Question:
Question of the Week: Should the U.S. Engage Hamas in the Peace Process Between the Israelis and Palestinians?Posted by DipNote Bloggers on Mar 04, 2008 - 11:58 AM
The House got wind of this, prompting this post:
U.S. Congressman Mark Kirk in Washington, DC writes:
Worrying that you guys are asking questions like this using funds approved by the appropriations committee that I am a member of.
Posted on Sun Mar 09, 2008
State called the Congressman's office to verify that the comment was, indeed, his. Having done so, it posted this response:
State Department Spokesman Sean McCormack writes:@Thanks to Dorkowitz for both creating and then promulgating this tidbit.
Congressman Kirk --
Thank you for your comment, the first on the blog from a member of Congress. The
question of the week portion of the blog is meant to allow public comment about
questions we at the State Department are asked by the media and others in public
fora. The asking of the question is not meant to indicate support for a policy
different than that of the government. The asking of the question is also not
meant to hint at a change in policy.
Sean McCormack Posted on Tue Mar 11,
2008
1 comment:
Well, State's question is a bit asinine - Hamas is currently designated by them as a terrorist organization, and US citizens are forbidden from materially aiding Hamas in any way. The question they should ask is "given that Hamas is the elected government of the majority of the population in Gaza, should we revise their status such that they are no longer considered a terrorist organization?"
If the answer to the above was "yes," and then that became US policy, then the engagement quesiton would be meaningful. Until then, it's more like "should the US governemnt violate the US government's policy?"
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