Is this one of those terrorist statements that our betters tell us Should Be Heeded, like anything having to do with America’s support for Israel or the “root causes” of 9/11, or is this one of those shady pronouncements that we can safely ignore as disinformation or pro forma jihadist windage, like anything that comes out of Ahmadinejad’s mouth or any acknowledgment by Wahhabists that they’re losing in Iraq or whatever the last thing was that Hamas had to say publicly about Obama? Your answer depends almost entirely on your ideological bent:

The Illinois senator was ridiculed, criticized and generally harassed back in April when a top Hamas adviser, Ahmed Yousef, told a radio interviewer that the Palestinian militant group — considered a terrorist organization by the U.S. government — liked Obama and hoped he would win the U.S. presidential election…

That may have changed Wednesday, when Obama went before American Israel Public Affairs Committee in Washington a day after clinching the Democratic nomination and declared his strong support for Israel…

“Obama’s comments have confirmed that there will be no change in the U.S. administration’s foreign policy on the Arab-Israeli conflict,” Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri told Reuters in Gaza.

“The Democratic and Republican parties support totally the Israeli occupation at the expense of the interests and rights of Arabs and Palestinians,” he said.

“Hamas does not differentiate between the two presidential candidates, Obama and Mccain, because their policies regarding the Arab-Israel conflict are the same and are hostile to us, therefore we do have no preference and are not wishing for either of them to win,” Zuhri said.

That’s one mighty thorough unendorsement, which is curious given that they only “endorsed” him in the first place six weeks ago, after he’d spent the past year telling anyone who’d listen how much he loves Israel. Did they somehow miss the previous thousand pro-Zionist speeches? Or were they finally convinced that he’s saying this stuff because he means it and not for political advantage by his big speech today to … the most politically influential Israeli lobbyist group in America? Doesn’t add up; I guess we’ll just have to wonder what the motive could be. Let’s hope that the news doesn’t dissuade his Palestinian-American supporters, many of whom have it in their heads that his true beliefs on this subject are rather more nuanced than his rhetoric indicates. Exit question: Does this mean the phone bank’s canceled?