Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled Mashaal
Mahmoud Abbas and Khaled MashaalIsrael news photo: Flash 90

The European Union has broken its promise not to fund Hamas, officially defined as terrorists, but now re-united with Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas.

Despite the official isolation of Hamas by the EU, an official statement this week stated that that “the EU looks forward to continuing its support, including through direct financial assistance, for a new Palestinian government that should uphold the principle of non-violence.”

EU foreign relations spokesman Michael Mann tried to explained the EU’s continued financing of the new unity PA  government by stating, "We need to know who will be the ministers and what they will say.”

Hamas has repeatedly emphasized that the Palestinian Authority cannot achieve statehood without “resistance,” the code word for terrorism. It also has publicly encouraged kidnapping Israeli soldiers and civilians, particularly since it was able to gain the release of more than 1,000 terrorists and security prisoners in return for handing over to Israel kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.

Hamas and its rival party Fatah, headed by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, hammered out an agreement in Doha Tuesday for a new interim PA government headed by Abbas. The two factions broke off from each other after Hamas’ bloody military coup in Gaza in 2007.

The Quartet – the United States, EU, Russia and the United Nations – has said it recognizes the on the conditions that it renounce violence, recognizes Israel and honors previous agreements. Hamas has categorically refused to agree to the conditions, while Abbas vocally has stated opposition to violence while constantly lauding terrorists. He also has declined to officially recognize Israel, particularly not as a Jewish state.

He also has broken the Oslo Accords several times, the most blatant violation being the unilateral move to ask the United Nations for recognition of the Palestinian Authority as an independent state based on his own territorial and political definitions.