Well, Barack Obama achieved his goal with his speech today to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC): he has officially been unendorsed by Hamas.
“I will bring to the White House an unshakable commitment to Israel’s security,” Obama said. “That starts with ensuring Israel’s qualitative military advantage. I will ensure that Israel can defend itself from any threat — from Gaza to Tehran.” Prompting a Hamas spokesman to tell Reuters, “Hamas does not differentiate between the two presidential candidates, Obama and McCain, because their policies regarding the Arab-Israel conflict are the same and are hostile to us, therefore we do have no preference and are not wishing for either of them to win.”
Mission accomplished.
“I just read Obama’s whole AIPAC speech,” an editor at Harper’s wrote in an email to me. “I hadn’t been able to imagine any Dem going more (cynically?) hawkish on Israel than Edwards did in 2004, but hey, he manages! I guess, being a Muslim and all, he feels pressured to do this.”