Ex-Obama adviser's pro-Hamas views 'well known'
Robert Malley quit after media re****ted his contacts with terror group
Posted: May 11, 2008
11:12 pm Eastern
By Aaron Klein
© 2008 WorldNetDaily
JERUSALEM - An adviser to Sen. Barack Obama who quit after it was re****ted
he held talks with Hamas was a well-known sup****ter of negotiations with
Hamas and providing international assistance to the terrorist group.
Robert Malley, an employee of the International Crisis Group, said he
served
as an "informal" Middle East adviser to Obama. He told NBC News this past
weekend he decided to step down after the Times of London inquired about
whether he had contacts with Hamas.
"I decided based on the fact that this was becoming a distraction that it
was best that I remove myself from any association with the campaign,"
Malley told NBC.
Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt issued a statement to the Times: "Malley has,
like hundreds of other experts, provided informal advice to the campaign
in
the past. He has no formal role in the campaign and he will not play any
role in the future."
Malley's pro-Hamas views, though, were no secret.
WND re****ted in January Malley has penned numerous opinion articles, many
of
them co-written with a former adviser to the late Palestinian Authority
President Yasser Arafat, petitioning for dialogue with Hamas and blasting
Israel for numerous policies he says harm the Palestinian cause.
In February 2006, after Hamas won a majority of seats in the Palestinian
parliament and amid a U.S. and Israeli attempt to isolate the Hamas-run
Palestinian Authority, Malley wrote an op-ed for the Baltimore Sun
advocating international aid to the terror group's newly formed
government.
"The Islamists (Hamas) ran on a campaign of effective government and
promised to improve Palestinians' lives; they cannot do that if the
international community turns its back," wrote Malley in a piece entitled,
"Making the Best of Hamas' Victory."
(Story continues below)
Malley contended the election of Hamas expressed Palestinian "anger at
years
of humiliation and loss of self-respect because of Israeli settlement
expansion, Arafat's imprisonment, Israel's incursions, Western lecturing
and, most recently and tellingly, the threat of an aid cut off in the
event
of an Islamist success."
Malley said the U.S. should not "discourage third-party unofficial
contacts
with [Hamas] in an attempt to moderate it."
In an op-ed in the Wa****ngton Post in January coauthored by Arafat adviser
Hussein Agha, Malley - using could be perceived as anti-Israel language -
urged Israel's negotiating partner Abbas to reunite with Hamas.
"A renewed national compact and the return of Hamas to the political fold
would upset Israel's strategy of perpetuating Palestinian geographic and
political division," wrote Malley.
He further petitioned Israel to hold talks with Hamas.
"An arrangement between Israel and Hamas could advance both sides'
interests," he wrote.
In numerous other op-eds, Malley advocates a policy of engagement with
Hamas.
Hamas is responsible for scores of deadly shootings, suicide bombings and
rocket attacks aimed at Jewish civilian population centers. The past few
weeks alone, Hamas militants took credit for firing more than 200 rockets
into Israel.
Hamas' official charter calls for the murder of Jews and destruction of
Israel.
Hamas maintained a national unity government with Palestinian Authority
President Mahmoud Abbas until the Palestinian leader dissolved the
agreement
and deposed the Hamas prime minister last year.
Hamas in recent days has become a campaign issue for Obama, who has
repeatedly called Hamas a terror group that should be isolated.
Last week, Obama and Sen. John McCain traded barbs about a Hamas
endorsement
that came during an interview with WND and with WABC Radio.
Ahmed Yousuf, Hamas' top political adviser in the Gaza Strip, expressed
"hope" Obama will win the presidential elections and he compared the
Illinois senator to John F. Kennedy.
McCain mentioned Hamas' praise of Obama during several national
interviews.
Obama claimed McCain's statements were a "smear."
Obama also came under fire after it was re****ted his Trinity United Church
of Christ newsletter reprinted an opinion piece by a top Hamas official
that
defended terrorism as legitimate resistance, refused to recognize the
right
of Israel to exist and compared the terror group's official charter -
which
calls for the murder of Jews - to America's Declaration of Independence.
The Hamas piece was published on Rev. Jeremiah Wright's "Pastor's Page,"
which later printed an open letter by a pro-Palestinian activist that
labeled Israel an "apartheid" regime and claimed the Jewish state worked
on
an "ethnic bomb" that kills "blacks and Arabs."
--
"I understand MSNBC has suspended Mr. Imus," Obama told ABC News, "but I
would also say that there's nobody on my staff who would still be working
for me if they made a comment like that about anybody of any ethnic group.
And I would hope that NBC ends up having that same attitude."
April 11 2007 B.Hussein Obama
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