Essay: Why Rice Failed to Find Arab Support on Hamas

[Scurrilous]

U.S. efforts to put a financial blockade on the Palestinian Authority are rebuffed as allies prefer to give Hamas a chance to govern responsibly

<snip>

"As Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made her way around the Middle East this week trying in vain to convince Arab governments to cut all funding to a Hamas-led government, the U.S. and Israel both found themselves struggling to find a workable response to an unanticipated reality. The only way the U.S.-Israeli effort to isolate a Hamas-led Palestinian government will succeed, right now, is if Hamas were to launch new terror strikes against Israel. And that's precisely the reason why Palestinian observers and Israeli security analysts expect the radical Islamist movement to maintain and extend the cease-fire it proclaimed a year ago.

The Bush Administration responded to Hamas assuming the reins of power in the Palestinian Authority by demanding the return of $50 million in aid, and urging others to join it in cutting all funding until the movement agrees to renounce violence, recognize Israel and accept existing peace treaties. Israel — with its center-right government looking over its right shoulder ahead of next month's election — has even suspended the transfer of tax and customs revenues owed to the Palestinian Authority, that form the bulk of its budget. But when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was rebuffed by both Egypt and Saudi Arabia this week as she sought their support to cut all funding to a Hamas-led government, she was left to concede that "different countries will have different modalities and how to deal with this." In other words, the U.S. attempt to impose a financial blockade on the Palestinian Authority to force immediate concessions from Hamas has essentially been stillborn.

There are good reasons for that. Hamas, having just won a resounding election victory, is not about to make a series of declarations that they might see as a symbolic surrender. Instead, Hamas's representatives responded to the threat of financial sanctions by making their own tour of the Arab and Islamic world seeking pledges of financial support to make up for any shortfall created by politically motivated funding cuts.

And Hamas appears to have made some diplomatic headway, having met with Turkey's Prime Minister, accepted an invitation to Moscow and even won France's endorsement of Russia's policy of engagement with the new government. The Egyptian foreign minister seemed to sum up the moderate Arab response, characterizing the U.S. call to cut funding as premature: "We should give Hamas time," said Ahmed Abul Gheit after meeting with Rice. "I'm sure that Hamas will develop, will evolve. We should not prejudge the issue."

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[bemildred]

1. This needs explaining? nt

[regnaD kciN]

2. I think this essay could have been one sentence long...

Why Rice Failed to Find Arab Support on Hamas

She was representing George W. Bush.

:spank: