Former Hamas Senior Adviser: 'I Do Like Chuck Hagel'

Former Senior Adviser to Hamas Leadership Ahmed Yousef is not impressed with Obama’s trip to Israel, but one thing he will say is, “I do like Chuck Hagel.”

Yousef was part of the Hamas takeover of government offices in Gaza and was also there for the Mavi Marmara confrontation. He is “now the secretary general of the House of Wisdom Institution for Conflict Resolution & Governance, a think tank for political Islam.” 

He says, “The people do not expect that much coming out of [Obama’s] visit.” 

Yousef said he had hope Obama was going to bring change following the 2009 Cairo Speech, but he said those optimistic feelings faded as politics took predominance over the things he’d heard Obama say. 

But one thing that Yousef thinks Obama has done right is picking Chuck Hagel for Secretary of Defense. Said Yousef: “I do like Chuck Hagel. When I was in the United States I could tell he was a man of integrity…a man of conscience.”