******* America and Hamas *******
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By Martin N. Katz
Professor of Government at George Mason University
1/27/06
United Press International

Washington, Jan. 27 (UPI)--Hamas's victory in the Palestinian Parliamentary elections poses a dilemma for the Bush administration.

On the one hand, President George W. Bush--in stark contrast with previous American Presidents--supports democratization in the Middle East. On the other hand, Bush is adamant that the US will not negotiate with terrorist (i.e., violent) groups that refuse to recognize Israel.

The problem that Washington now faces is the type of movement the Bush administration insists it will not negotiate with has now won a free election supported by the Bush administration.

It is understandable that neither the United States nor Israel wishes to negotiate with a movement that has engaged in terrorism and refuses to recognize Israel. Not to negotiate with this movement now that it has won an election, however, would be a mistake. Winning the parliamentary elections has given hamas a legitimacy that it has never had before.

Ever since Bush proclaimed his support for the democratization of the Middle East, Arab commentators have cynically claimed that he only does so if elections yield results that he likes. Washington, they claim, will not tolerate an Arab election results that is anti-American and anti-Israeli. American foreign policy cannot afford for this logic to be proven accurate.

An American refusal to negotiate with Hamas will not result in the Palestinians realizing they made a dreadful mistake in electing it and resolving to vote for whatever party the United States does approve of next time. Instead, they are likely to become more enraged than ever over Washington's unwillingness to talk with their legitimately elected leaders.

Worse still, the Palestinians may well conclude that if the United States does not respect their democratic choice, then America and Israel are not really interested in negotiating and that violence is indeed the only option open for them.

Further, the perception that America is unwilling to respect electoral outcomes it disapproves of in occupied territories is likely to discredit its democratization efforts elsewhere in the greater Middle East.

What the US needs to do instead is to state clearly that it respects the election results in the occupied territories and that it is willing to work with Hamas--so long as it eschews violence. The United States must persuade Israel to do the same, and to exercise self-restraint.

It is highly unlikely that Hamas will recognize Israel's right to exist right away. But rather than rejecting it out of hand for this, the United States and Israel should show it that they are willing to engage in peaceful cooperation, and that violence is both unnecessary and counterproductive.

Will this strategy work? maybe it will, or maybe it won't.

If it does work, a democratically elected Hamas may be more capable of maintaining peace with Israel than the late Yasser Arafat's increasingly unpopular Fatah has been able to do.
Hamas, on the other hand, might well prove unwilling to make peace with Israel. if so, Israel has demonstrated that it can defend itself.

What is more important, though, is that Hamas be given the opportunity to show whether or not it can work for a peaceful resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict now that it has been elected to power. For if America and Israel deny Hamas this opportunity, Hamas's pursuit of a violent path will appear legitimate to Palestinians as well as other Arabs and Muslims.

If, on the other hand, Hamas is offered the opportunity to make peace but refuses it, something else is likely to occur. A Hamas that is unwilling to make peace with Israel is also unlikely to rule peaceably and democratically over its fellow Palestinians.

Bush himself pointed out that Hamas's electoral victory came about as a result of Palestinian unhappiness over the previous Fatah leadership. If Hamas behaves, in a similar way after coming to power, it will also discredit itself in the eyes of the Palestinians.

Allowing this to happen would be a far more effective means of undermining Hamas than for America and Israel to refuse to deal with it and thereby legitimize it.

Hamas's victory in the Palestinian elections is a momentous event. How the Bush administration reacts to it will have an enormous impact, for better or for worse, not Just on the prospects for Arab-Israeli peace, but also for the democratization of the greater Middle East.

We cannot afford to get this wrong.

Source:
http://upi.com/InternationalIntelligence/view.php?StoryID=20060127-013208-3747r