The Hardline attack on Obama and Progressive Middle Eastern Policy

While in Israel, President Bush attacked diplomatic solutions, a veiled shot across Obama's bow.

"Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along," Bush said in remarks delivered Thursday to mark Irsael's 60th anniversary. "We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared, 'Lord, if only I could have talked to Hitler, all of this might have been avoided.'

The Hitler analogy is deeply misleading and historically inappropriate. The rejection of the possibility of communication and diplomatic overture with Iran or Hamas is strategically inept, in both realist and idealist foreign policy traditions.

Obama has been firm about his condemnation of Iran's policies and Hamas as a terrorist organization, but he's wisely argued that diplomatic engagement should not ruled out, and that it make sense to engage hostile states and entities in basic dialogue.

JStreet has taken the President to Task:
http://salsa.wiredforchange.com/o/2747/t/3184/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=2174