Roger Cohen to Israel: "What Is the Problem" in Talking to Terrorist Group Hamas?

Roger Cohen to Israel: "What Is the Problem" in Talking to Terrorist Group Hamas?: "Talking to Charlie Rose, Times columnist Roger Cohen again downplayed Israel's security fears, urged them to talk to the anti-Israeli terrorist group Hamas, and insisted the U.S. pursue engagement with Iran's corrupt president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad."

Times foreign affairs columnist Roger Cohen appeared on PBS's Charlie Rose talk show to talk about Iran. Cohen, who writes the "Globalist" column for the Times international edition and also appears in the U.S. version, has courted controversy with his defense of the Iranian regime and apparently careless attitude toward Israel's security interests. (He thinks calling Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists is unduly simplistic.)

In his 20-minute segment with Rose, Cohen again downplayed Israel's security fears, urged them to talk to the anti-Israeli terrorist group Hamas, and insisted the U.S. pursue engagement with Iran's corrupt yet also sometimes "pragmatic and prudent" leadership, which is headed by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who returned to power this year in a dubious election followed by a bloody crackdown on dissent.

Some excerpts from Cohen's October 15 appearance:

Host Charlie Rose: President Ahmadinejad has closed down newspapers, and three protesters who participated in the post-election demonstrations have been sentenced to death. Joining me now is Roger Cohen. He writes "The Globalist" column for the "New York Times" and the "International Herald Tribune." He was in Iran during the election and the violence that followed. I am pleased to have him here at this table. Tell me how you see the dilemma for Israel as a country today looking at its best interest and its future.

Times columnist Roger Cohen: Well Israel's a small country surrounded by enemies, some of which talk openly about Israel's destruction. And so you have to get inside the Israeli psyche and understand that. However, Charlie, when I listened to Prime Minister Netanyahu at the U.N. last month, the first half of the speech was about the Holocaust, about the Nazis, comparing Iran to the Nazi regime. And my feeling is that Israel lives in a changing Middle East. There are threats to it, but let's try to be sober about this. Let's look at Hamas, look at Hezbollah, look at Iran and see if we can take the rhetoric down a notch or two. And let's set aside these, I think, very misleading comparisons and analogies with the Holocaust, and deal, for example, with an Iranian regime that is erratic and sometimes ruthless, but has also proved over the last 30 years that it can be pragmatic and prudent. Indeed, that's one reason it has survived.