Talk to me, babe, talk to me...

In his column-cum-blog on the Foreign Policy website Professor Stephen M. Walt hails a letter by a dozen veteran foreign policy officials that advise Obama to talk to Hamas. This is a realist step in the new president's foreign policy agenda, according to Walt, whose main line of criticism in the last several years was directed towards Bush's largely non-realist policy decisions.

According to the Boston Globe article quoted by Walt, the old foreign policy hands are also preparing a report on how exactly to begin the talks.

If this speculation becomes policy, it will mark a huge turn in the US Middle East policy, the turn long-awaited by the millions across the globe. Of course, there will be conditions dictated by the US, such as renunciation of violence and recognition of Israel, at the very least. But that the US is contemplating talking to an organisation it has defined for the last several years as "terrorist" is a clear sign of a change in political winds.