A U.S.senator and two other Democratic lawmakers travelled to Hamas-controlled Gaza on Thursday.
Senator John Kerry, a one-time presidential contender who chairs the Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee, toured Gaza after visiting rocket-riddled Sderot together with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. During a stop at a local police station to see a collection of rockets fired by Gaza terrorists, Kerry told reporters that his visit “does not indicate any shift whatsoever with respect to Hamas. What it indicates is our effort to listen and to learn."
Kerry’s tour of the region was preceded by an unannounced visit to Gaza by two members of Congress, also on Thursday.
The tour of Gaza by U.S. Congressmen Brian Baird (Dem.-Washington) and Keith Ellison (Dem.-Minnesota) was the first such visit by American lawmakers since the Hamas terrorist organization seized control over the region and the local Gaza government in June 2007.
The two congressional representatives visited Izzbet Abed Rabbo, a northern Gaza community that was greatly damaged due to Israel’s military operations in the area. Arab sources said that Baird and Ellison did not meet Hamas officials during their Gaza visit.
Ellison, the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Congress, abstained from voting on a January 9 resolution in the House of Representatives in support of Israel’s Operation ‘Cast Lead.’ Prior to the vote, Ellison addressed his colleagues, “Last fall I voted for a resolution specifically condemning these rocket attacks into Israel. At the same time, I cannot vote for this resolution because it barely mentions the human suffering of the Palestinians in Gaza.”
A Time for Change?
Kerry stated in Sderot, “What has to change is behavior. What has to change obviously is Hamas's consistent resort to instruments of terror. We feel very deeply that no one should have to live under this threat.”
"The politics of the Obama administration and this Democratic Congress remain the same with respect to Hamas," added the senator, who was scheduled to hold talks with U.N. officials in Gaza.
The senator’s comments were apparently intended to reassure Israeli leaders who perceive Obama’s accolades towards the Iranian regime to be a dramatic shift from the Bush administration’s hawkish policies.
Hamas terrorists again woke Israeli civilians Thursday morning by firing rockets at western Negev communities in what has become a daily occurrence. The continuous rocket attacks from Gaza have occurred against the backdrop of Israel’s Security Cabinet decision Wednesday that no ceasefire agreement with Hamas would be approved without the release of abducted IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.
Clinton to Attend Cairo Conference
Meanwhile, United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that she will attend next week's Egyptian conference on the Palestinian Authority. It was the first time she confirmed a report by Egyptian officials that she would participate.
“I will go to Cairo next week to a conference sponsored by the Egyptians to try to get humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,” Clinton stated while touring Indonesia, Asia’s most populous Muslim country and Barack Obama’s childhood home.
More than 70 countries are expected to attend the conference. Cairo is hoping that it will be able to complete another Hamas-Israel ceasefire before the conference begins.