Haaretz has an amazing story about how Mosab Hassan Yousef, son of one of Hamas’s founders, was for years a top intelligence source for Israel’s Shin Bet security service. A convert to Christianity who now lives in California, Yousef tells his story in the upcoming book Son of Hamas. According to Haaretz, “During the second intifada, intelligence Yousef supplied led to the arrests of a number of high-ranking Palestinian figures responsible for planning deadly suicide bombings.” And according to his former handler, “none of his actions were done for money. He did things he believed in. He wanted to save lives.”
What most impressed me about the Haaretz article was Yousef’s opinion on the possibility of rapprochement between Hamas and Israel — a favorite fantasy of the “peace process” crowd in the West:
Hamas cannot make peace with the Israelis. That is against what their God tells them. It is impossible to make peace with infidels, only a cease-fire, and no one knows that better than I. The Hamas leadership is responsible for the killing of Palestinians, not Israelis,” he said. “Palestinians! They do not hesitate to massacre people in a mosque or to throw people from the 15th or 17th floor of a building, as they did during the coup in Gaza. The Israelis would never do such things. I tell you with certainty that the Israelis care about the Palestinians far more than the Hamas or Fatah leadership does.
It’s easy to dismiss such sentiments when they come from conservative Israelis. Perhaps Yousef’s view — informed by his intimate knowledge of Hamas — will carry greater weight with some naïve proponents of endless “engagement.”
Srsly? Where’d that landslide go? It’s where it always was, at fivethirtyeight. Know what though, you’re probably right? Whatever Marc Ambinder’s gut tells him probably does supersede rigorous statistical analysis.
I’m not sure how designating Pennsylvania, Iowa, Colorado and Michigan as “toss-ups” indicates a pro-Obama slant, since he’ll probably win all of those states.
But yes, the McCain team must surely feel emboldened now, what with several polls putting their man behind in Florida and barely ahead in North Carolina and Georgia…
Wow, Jen, those are some powerful mushrooms you and Marc ate. Keep dreamin’
Obama opens up 15 point national lead. This site is starting to read like the journals of Ceausescu’s advisors near the end. I really, really hope Team McCain fires Charlie Black and appoints Jen Rubin chief strategist.
Ambinder’s your expert? You link to him a lot as the “voice from the left.” You must be colleagues or friends.
Anyway, here’s something to chew on. The latest Newsweek poll has Obama opening up a 15-point national lead over McCain. Run that by Ambinder to see what it means.
Seriously, how many of these poll posts do we have to suffer through? It’s only June and it’s already as dull as a box of rocks. I like it better when you’re outraged! about Obama. Terrorist trials! No public financing! Michelle hates America! Please return to your regularly scheduled broadcast.
Pay no attention to those pro-Obama polls. They are anti-Semitic. Every last one of them hates Israel.
Mr. Magoo (McCain) is going to make Dole ’96 look like a swinger’s convention. He don’t know his right from his left and he’s got the idiot boy (W) swinging on his neck like a monkey. Sure, it’s a long way ’till November, but Obama’s a pretty slick customer and this country wants change in a bad way. If I were a Republican – I’d be living on bromo and alka-seltzer now.
California unemployment rose by 0.6% in May alone. April was unchanged from March, but March had risen by 0.5% from February. Nationwide unemployment rose 0.5% in May.
Gas prices are now triple what they were when the war criminal in chief took office, and home foreclosures are skyrocketing. Your candidate is going to get slaughtered this fall. Just wait.
“war criminal in chief”???? Wow, did this site get some cross-traffic from Kos?
While your Kool-Aid is wearing off, go over to Real Clear Politics. Obama ahead? Sure. McCain has a tough fight. Sure.
But Newsweek looks to be an outlier…who’d have thought.
People, it’s June. Circumstances change.
That Newsweek poll has just 22% Republicans sampled (as the lead Obama propaganda machine, they probably couldn’t find any more than that willing to even take a call from Newsweek). So I’m surprised the Obama lead isn’t more like 25 points, with such a skewed sample.
Anyway, we don’t elect a President by a national vote, so only the trends over time may be valuable on a national level.
The desperation and terror of the leftists, jihadis, skinheads and other America haters commenting on this news is palpable. Quoting phony leftwing polls is obvious meant as self medication more than it is to convince us.
I challenge any anti-American troll here to paste a state by state projection that gives the Anointed One the Electoral lead. That should be good for a laugh. He’ll be lucky to win two or three of the toss up states, and he has no hope of winning a single Red state. C’mon. Make our day, trolls.
But there are no “anti-American trolls” here. If you rephrase your challenge, I’d be happy to fulfill your request with a link to a Republican site that has exactly the state-by-state projections you seek, adding up to 349 EVs for Obama and 189 EVs for McCain.
“John Hartland” may or may not be a troll but he is definitely anti-American.
“John Hartland” may or may not be a troll but he is definitely anti-American.
The “anti-Americans” are those who live here while owing their loyalty to a foreign country that spies on the U.S. while claiming it is our “friend,” and that commits wholesale human rights violations against its neighbors.
John Reichland,
what is your final solution for “those who live here while owing their loyalty to a foreign country?”
Sig Heil!
John Reichland
Jawohl, mein Commentarian?