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| Israel-Palestine |
| US will not alter stance on Hamas |
| 2005-06-07 |
| The Bush administration, rebuffing the suggestions of some European officials, will continue to refuse to have contact with the militant group Hamas and its leaders even if some of those leaders win elections in Palestinian areas, a senior administration official said Monday. The official said that a ban on contacts with Hamas was required because the group was listed by the United States as a terrorist organization, and that the United States would not follow a practice of some European countries of engaging with the group's political wing even if it also had an armed wing carrying out attacks on civilians. "The president has said that Hamas is on the terrorism list, and it's there for a reason," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "We don't recognize that you have changed your behavior just because a group is running candidates as well as suicide bombers." The official's comments were significant in light of Mr. Bush's outspoken support for democracy in the Middle East, particularly in Palestinian areas, where Hamas has considerable political strength and is challenging the leadership of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader. Hamas won several recent local elections in the West Bank and Gaza, and it is expected to make a strong showing against Mr. Abbas's faction, Fatah, in coming parliamentary elections. Mr. Abbas announced Sunday that he would postpone those elections, which had been scheduled for July 17, prompting protests by Hamas. Some in the Bush administration had expressed concern in private about the possibility of Hamas's winning the parliamentary elections, especially if such a victory meant that the United States and Israel might have to engage with Hamas officials in carrying out the planned disengagement of Israeli forces and settlers from Gaza, starting in August. A senior Israeli official recently said Israel feared that Gaza would become "Hamastan," effectively a militant state that would sponsor attacks on Israelis and make impossible any further Israeli withdrawals from parts of the West Bank. In some ways, administration officials say, the stance on Hamas recalls the quandary for the administration over the militant group Hezbollah, a Shiite party based in Lebanon that is also believed to support attacks on Israelis. The United States has been unable to get Europe to label Hezbollah a terrorist organization and to cut off contacts. European countries argue that a better strategy would be to encourage Hezbollah to enter the political mainstream. The senior administration official said there were signs in the last few days that Palestinian-Israeli talks on turning over infrastructure to the Palestinians in Gaza and parts of the West Bank were proceeding at a better pace than previously. Over all, he said, the disengagement talks between the sides had achieved mixed results. Israel's release of 400 prisoners last week improved the mood among Palestinians, this official said, adding that various intermediaries would be shuttling back and forth to the region to push the process along. James D. Wolfensohn, the former president of the World Bank, is in the Middle East this week, and officials say that two American envoys, Elliott Abrams of the White House and David Welch of the State Department, would be going to the region soon. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to go to the area later this month to put more pressure on Israelis and Palestinians to work with each other on the disengagement. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #1 EU: "C'mon, give them a break! They're just energetic boyz without enough to do. Who can blame them for killing Jooos? Haven't we all?" |
| Posted by: Frank G 2005-06-07 18:18 |