Obama highlights "legitimate claims" of Hamas, Hezbollah

Paul Mirengoff:

Noah Pollak has an insightful piece on Barack Obama's absurdly naive prescription for neutralizing Hezbollah in Lebanon...

[Obama] said the U.S. should help the Lebanese government deliver better services to the Shiites “to peel support away from Hezbollah” and encourage the local populace to “view them as an oppressive force.” The U.S. should “find a mechanism whereby the disaffected have an effective outlet for their grievances, which assures them they are getting social services.”


AFP caption: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran's president (L) pledges funds to Khaled Meshaal, the leader of Hamas.
The U.S. needs a foreign policy that “looks at the root causes of problems and dangers.” Obama compared Hezbollah to Hamas. Both need to be compelled to understand that “they’re going down a blind alley with violence that weakens their legitimate claims.”

[Obama says that Hamas and Hezbollah "need to be compelled"... But compulsion entails force and/or coercision, and Obama won't commit to either... The larger problem... is that Obama's... salute to the "legitimate claims" of Hamas and Hezbollah, would only persuade them they are going down precisely the alley that serves their interests.

What are the "legitimate claims" of Hamas and Hezbollah?

Mark Steyn reminds us.

Here are some words of Hussein Massawi, the former leader of Hezbollah:

"We are not fighting so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you."

Are his actions consistent with those words? Amazingly so. So, too, are those of Hezbollah's patrons in Tehran.

President Reagan talked with the Soviets while pushing ahead with the deployment of Cruise and Pershing missiles in Europe. He spoke softly – after getting himself a bigger stick. Sen. Obama is proposing to reward a man who pledges to wipe Israel off the map with a presidential photo-op to which he will bring not even a twig.

I'll say it again. Barack Obama makes Jimmy Carter look like General Sherman.