Perhaps we shouldn’t have bolstered Abbas so much:
US House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer has warned Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas not to talk to an unreformed Hamas about reentering a unity government ahead of a visit to Israel and the West Bank next week.
“Dealing with Hamas and being in any coalition with Hamas [without Hamas accepting international demands to stop terrorism and recognize Israel] would be something which we would look on with opposition and suspicion,” Hoyer (D-Maryland) told The Jerusalem Post in a telephone interview Wednesday. He said such a government would be a “setback” and a “cause for concern.”
Hoyer’s comments followed a Post report that officials from Abbas’s Fatah party have been conducting secret negotiations with Hamas about a possible reconciliation, with the help of mediators from Arab countries. — Jerusalem Post
I just love watching slow-motion train wrecks. This whole scenario was predicted in detail (by Ami Isseroff and others) some time ago.
The US will look very progressive, won’t it, lobbying against Palestinan reconciliation. On the other hand, a rapprochement between Fatah and Hamas will be the death of the Bush Administration’s latest Israeli-Palestinian policy — and probably of some Israelis too, as Hamas adds even more armaments to its collection.
The obvious flaws in the US policy make it hard to understand why it was selected in the first place. The fact that the “mediators from Arab countries” are probably the Saudis may give us a clue.
Technorati Tags: Hoyer, Palestinians, Hamas, Fatah