Over on Bloggingheads.TV, The Forward's Gershom Gorenberg confirms what I argued on MSNBC's "Tucker" back in September, that this past summer, the Bush Administration actively thwarted attempts from Hamas to moderate and implicitly recognize Israel.

(The response from my conservative counterparts was that liberals blame Bush for everything.)

Presently, elements of Hamas are renewing attempts to moderate, offering to cede some power and allowing a coalition government to reach out to Israel.

That's not as good an offering as before -- as Hamas itself would not implicitly recognize Israel, just potentially, a coalition government -- but it's still a small step forward, and it's an opportunity that the White House will likely choose to miss again.

As Gorenberg said about the earlier missed opportunity:

...the frightening thing is that, for the past several years since the Bush Administration began, the American position has not been to take any active role in encouraging a negotiated agreement.

And I would say that is damaging not only to American interests, it's also damaging to Israeli interests. I don't see that as a form of support for Israel ... Israel's long-term, most essential, strategic need is to reach an end to the conflict.

Past LiberalOasis posts on this are here and here.