The U.S. conveniently ignores that it won election
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - Monday, October 16, 2006

Gaza is one of the lesser-known foreign policy failures of the Bush administration, but it is nonetheless a dangerous piece of bungling in severe need of repair.

When he was Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon kicked off the effort to launch Gaza as at least a semi-independent Palestinian state, perhaps eventually to serve as the basis for a recognized, two-state approach to the nearly six-decade effort to arrive at a stable Israeli-Palestinian situation. Mr. Sharon, at political cost to himself, pulled out Israeli settlers and forces from Gaza.

Last January this effort was capped with decent, peaceful and democratic Palestinian elections, observed by the international community. Hamas, a Palestinian party with considerable violence in its past, won by a clear margin. Israel, the United States and its partners in the peace-seeking quartet -- the European Union, Russia and the United Nations -- could have considered that at least there was now on the Palestinian side a party with an electoral mandate to serve as a partner in serious negotiations.

Instead, Israel and the United States have sought to pretend that the loser in the elections, Fatah -- the old, corrupt party of the late Yasser Arafat -- still represents the Palestinians. To try to make that true in spite of the elections, and to strangle Hamas, the two countries have cooperated to cut off funding to the Palestinian government, now ostensibly controlled by Hamas. Israel stopped passing on to it the customs and tax revenues it collects on its behalf. The United States has led an effort to cut off the Palestinians` international aid.

The Bush administration put Hamas in the category, with Iran and North Korea, of entities that don`t deserve to talk to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice or other top administration officials. The latest Bush administration effort to keep Fatah in the game includes support for a $26 million plan to assist Fatah`s armed elements, in sometimes hot conflict with Hamas, which would expand Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas` presidential guard force from 3,500 to 6,000.

The results of this mishandling of a sensitive issue are twofold. First, violence in Gaza continues between the Israelis and the Palestinians and also among the Palestinians, between armed Hamas and Fatah militias. Second, there is no serious interchange underway between the Israeli government or the international quartet and an authoritative Palestinian authority.

Such discussion is, of course, central and critical to a Middle East peace process, which simply does not exist at this point. Absent a peace process, there is no basis for the United States or anyone else to request organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah to desist from violence to permit such a process to move ahead. Violence, thus, continues to rule the day.

What is needed is for the United States to accept that Hamas won the elections and start talking to them.