U.S. maintains contact with Hamas behind closed doors
By israelinsider staff and partners June 9, 2005
Hamas' political clout in the West Bank and Gaza Strip has been growing steadily. In three rounds of municipal voting since December, the group sworn to Israel's destruction won more than a third of the 120 communities up for grabs, including some of the largest ones.
Mohammed Ghazal, a senior Hamas representative in the West Bank, on Wednesday rejected calls by the U.S. and others for his group to disarm but said a dialogue with the West would be beneficial for Hamas.
"We are interested in the dialogue," Ghazal said. "But we are not able to meet their conditions now, before resolving our national cause."
Hamas already has informal contacts with former American and European officials, he added.
The Bush administration rejects Ghazal's call for dialogue, said U.S. Embassy spokesman Paul Patin.
"There's been no change in our position. We consider Hamas a terrorist organization," he said.
Ghazal spoke a day after British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, during a visit to Israel, ruled out contact with Hamas leaders until the group renounces violence.
But even that vow was engulfed in nuance: Straw acknowledged in an earlier radio interview that British diplomats recently met with Hamas-affiliated politicians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Hamas' violent aspect has emerged in two days of Gaza violence. Hamas and Islamic Jihad activists fired mortars and rockets at Jewish settlements and Israeli towns, killing three workers, and on Wednesday Israel hit back -- sending its air force to fire on militant's mortar launchers.
The West's dilemma in deciding whether to deal with Hamas-backed politicians came about through the militant group's success in the very democratic election process the Bush administration is promoting for the Middle East.
"History will see this as the grand contradiction of the entire Bush post-9/11 strategy," said Israeli analyst Yossi Alpher, referring to the U.S. policy of pushing for elections, but then refusing to talk to the winners.
Some, especially in the European Union, argue that dealing with Hamas might make the group more pragmatic and less extreme. Israel, however, insists that talking to Hamas damages peace prospects by propping up violent hard-liners.
Sylvana Foa, a spokeswoman for USAID, said the United States has "a very firm policy" of not talking to Hamas, but added, "we have not stopped any ongoing projects because the leadership of a town, city or village has become Hamas." Foa said that U.S. officials "do not meet with those people."
The Bush administration, she said, is still deciding what to do about future aid projects, including US$200 million (?163 million) in new funds approved for the Palestinians.
Many of the new Hamas-backed mayors are not actual Hamas members; they ran on Hamas-affiliated tickets to capitalize on widespread discontent over graft in the ruling Fatah party.
Israel and newly elected Hamas-backed mayors have confirmed that they will cooperate on matters such as electricity, sanitation and water, though Israel says it will not speak to anyone directly involved in violence.
Cooperation is unavoidable in Palestinian towns such as Qalqiliya, which throws its refuse into the same dump as the neighboring Israeli town of Kfar Saba. Hamas recently swept all 15 local council seats in Qalqiliya.
Mohammed al-Masri, the town's Hamas-backed deputy mayor, recently told The Associated Press that he has "no problem talking with anybody who can help us."
And Ahmad el-Kurd, the Hamas-affiliated mayor of the poverty-stricken town of Deir el-Balah in the Gaza Strip, said his town is "open to receiving help from any country in the world, including Israel."
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas last week indefinitely postponed parliamentary elections set for July, apparently fearing Hamas' rapid ascendancy.
U.S. and British officials confirmed there are high-level discussions underway in each government to decide whether it's OK to deal with nonviolent politicians affiliated with Hamas.
After much prodding from the United States and Israel, the European Union in 2003 placed Hamas on its own list of terror organizations.
Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Gideon Meir said he hopes the international community will stick by its decision to brand Hamas, responsible for dozens of suicide bombings in Israel, as terrorists.
"It was so difficult to put Hamas on the terrorist list, especially in Europe," Meir said. "So I cannot see that America would go one step forward and two steps backward. This will take everything backward."
In the meantime, the leader of the terrorist Hizbullah group blasted the United States Wednesday as being eternally opposed to his faction, but urged his supporters to vote for an opposition ticket that enjoys unofficial Western support.
Sheik Hassan Nasrallah was speaking at a rally in the southern Beirut suburb of Roeis two days after Hizbullah and its ally Shiite Amal took all 23 seats in the parliamentary elections in south Lebanon.
The United States, which considers Hizbullah a terrorist organization, expressed concern over the party's success, saying an armed militia should not have a role in a democratic system.
"Don't waste your time thinking about what the Americans say," Nasrallah told the crowd of thousands. Referring to the legislature's 128 seats, he added: "Even if the Lebanese people, all the people of Lebanon, elected 128 Hizbullah members as legislators, the American administration would still say that Lebanon, its parliament and its people, are terrorists that should be wiped out."
"Death to America!" the crowd shouted in response.
The AP contributed to this report.