Quick Takes: News From Israel You May Have Missed

Hamas is hopeful that President Obama will open a dialogue with the group, Ahmed Yousef, Hamas’s chief political adviser in Gaza, told this column in an exclusive interview.

“We hear all the time statements [from Obama] promising change will come to the region, and that’s what we count on,” said Yousef.

He said he believes Obama could withhold U.S. financial support for Israel as a means of pressuring the Jewish state.

Meanwhile, a group of former senior American officials and one current top adviser to the Obama administration are petitioning the U.S. president to open talks with Hamas, believing the group can be part of the Palestinian peace process.

Paul Volcker, a former Federal Reserve chairman who was selected by Obama to head his new economic recovery advisory board, reportedly signed a letter last week advocating dialogue with Hamas. The letter was also signed by nine other Washington veterans, according to a report in the Boston Globe.

A United Nations official accusing Israel of committing a “war crime of the greatest magnitude” in Gaza has a long history of anti-Israel bias and siding with the Hamas terrorist organization.

Richard Falk, the UN special investigator on human rights in the Palestinian territories, has been part of investigations that determined Palestinian suicide bombings to be a valid method of “struggle,” vocally supported the Islamic revolution in Iran, and even supported charges claiming the U.S. government was involved in plotting the 9/11 attacks.

This week, Falk penned a widely-circulated report to the UN charging that Israel’s 22-day offensive against Hamas in Gaza appears to constitute a war crime of the “greatest magnitude.”

Upon Falk’s appointment to the Human Rights Council last spring, former UN Ambassador John Bolton commented, “This is exactly why we voted against the new human rights council.”

“He was picked for a reason, and the reason is not to have an objective assessment – the objective is to find more ammunition to go after Israel,” said Bolton, who suggested Falk was chosen because he previously compared Israeli actions in Gaza to the Nazi’s treatment of Jews.

Israel may be leaning toward releasing Ahmed Saadat, the infamous secretary-general of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, who is accused of organizing the assassination of Israel’s tourism minister, Rehavam Ze’evi.

Last week Israel released a list of some prisoners Hamas has demanded in exchange for the return of kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit but whom Israel adamantly refuses to spring from prison. Missing from the list was both Saadat and intifada architect and terrorist group founder Marwan Barghouti.

In recent days, top sources in Hamas provided WorldNetDaily with a list of prisoners whose release they requested during Egyptian-brokered negotiations with the Jewish state. Barghouti and Saadat were among the top 10. The Hamas sources claim they were told by Egyptian mediators that Israel was contemplating releasing Saadat and has already agreed to release Barghouti.

Saadat calls for the dismantlement of Israel and strongly opposes any peace deals with the Jewish state. He is accused of masterminding the 2001 assassination of Rehavam Ze’evi, who was murdered in his Jerusalem hotel.

Aaron Klein is Jerusalem bureau chief for WorldNetDaily.com. He appears throughout the week on leading U.S. radio programs and is the author of the book “Schmoozing with Terrorists.”