As commenter “Kilo” correctly points out, if Israel will talk to Hamas, why shouldn’t the US? Well, my answer is that it depends entirely on what he says during the conversation. If it is something along the lines of, say, “I hope the Israelis kill every one of you murderous animals and they can count on us to pay for the bullets” then I would imagine most of the Belmont Clubbers would give him three cheers. It is what we are all AFRAID he will say that makes that act of speaking to Hamas so objectionable. When Ronald Reagan went to see the Russians, it was after having established a long reputation for toughness and strength when dealing with them (he used to say he was looking forward to only answering their demands with a curt “Nyet”). Even so, many of his supporters feared he would lose his nerve in the crunch and fold to some outrageous demands (as he in fact did during the Iran Contra Fiasco).

If I were Israel, I would POUR IT ON. They’ve got at least one more clean week of pounding before Obama can turn up any real heat, and even then his Government Spending Tidal Wave Act of 2009 will be absorbing most of his attention, so they may actually have as much as a month to clobber those #$%&ers before the heat gets too high.