Senior Hamas terrorists attempted to open talks with the United States and Europe on Sunday, with Ahmed Yousef, the advisor to Gaza Hamas head Ismail Haniyeh, writing a letter to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice calling on the US to talk with Hamas.  “We are not anti-American, anti-European, or anti-anyone,” Yousef told Rice.  Hamas has “consistently offered dialogue” with the US and the European Union, he said.

Yousef accused the US of “hypocrisy” for failing to talk with Hamas after the group won democratic Palestinian Authority elections in 2006.  “Our party is the legitimately elected party,” he said, telling Rice “You owe it to your sense of fairness to engage meaningfully with all relevant parties to the conflict.”  Yousef said it was “amusing” that Rice had expressed sympathy for Israeli victims of Hamas bombings, arguing that Israeli civilians “face insecurity and death because that is the situation they have created for themselves.”