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Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/28/world/middleeast/28diplo.html
White House Puts Onus on Hamas to End Escalation of Violence
[New York Times] Robert Pear - The Bush administration issued blistering criticism of Hamas on Saturday, saying the group had provoked Israel's airstrikes on Gaza by firing rockets into southern Israel. Gordon D. Johndroe, a White House spokesman, said that Hamas, the group that controls Gaza, was responsible for the outbreak of violence and called its rocket attacks "completely unacceptable. These people are nothing but thugs," he said. "Israel is going to defend its people against terrorists like Hamas." During the presidential campaign, Mr. Obama made statements that sounded similar to those issued by the Bush administration on Saturday. "If somebody was sending rockets into my house where my two daughters sleep at night, I'm going to do everything in my power to stop that," Mr. Obama said in July. "And I would expect Israelis to do the same thing."