The United States and the European Union both consider Hamas a terrorist group, yet both are apparently willing to continue working with the Palestinian Authority government even if it includes Hamas terrorists.
A top EU official was quoted by Reuters as saying that his organization would not rule out working with a PA government that included Hamas - even though the EU has outlawed that organization. The official added a vague stipulation that the government must "work for peace with Israel."
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice tried to warn PA voters not to choose Hamas, saying that "one foot in terrorism and the other foot in politics" doesn't work. She further said, "It's hard to have negotiations with a party that you do not recognize its right to exist." However, she did not rule out working with a Fatah-Hamas government, saying only it would be "a very practical problem."
The U.S. is likely to continue to have diplomatic relations with such a government, minus direct contacts with Hamas ministers. "As a matter of policy, we don't deal with Hamas," Stewart Tuttle, the U.S. Embassy spokesman in Tel Aviv, said. "If Hamas members win seats... we are not going to deal with those individuals."
Some blame Israel for the fact that the international community now faces this dilemma. Robert Satloff, Executive Director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told the Herzliya Conference yesterday that Israel's contradictory policy on Hamas was "partly responsible for its already having gained political legitimacy through the election process," The Jerusalem Post reported.
Satloff said that Israel should have stood firm against Hamas participation in the upcoming elections. He noted that the PLO was long unrecognized by the Israel and the US because it did not renounce terrorism or recognize Israel's right to exist - while today, no one requires either of these from Hamas.