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Rice Admits U.S. Underestimated Hamas Strength By STEVEN R. WEISMAN LONDON, Jan. 29 — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged Sunday that the United States had failed to understand the depth of hostility among Palestinians toward their longtime leaders. The hostility led to an election victory by the militant group Hamas that has reduced to tatters crucial assumptions underlying American policies and hopes in the Middle East. "I've asked why nobody saw it coming," Ms. Rice said, speaking of her own staff. "It does say something about us not having a good enough pulse." ....... Indeed, Hamas's victory has set...

A year ago this time, it appeared as if freedom, at long last, was working its miracles in the stubborn sands of the Arab world. The Purple Thumb Revolution was sweeping through Iraq; Palestinians had given Mahmoud Abbas a resounding democratic mandate; and the Cedar Revolution was primed to push Syria’s puppets out of Lebanon. With a mix of worry and wonder, Fouad Ajami played Middle East meteorologist and concluded, “Now, the Arabs, grasping for a new world, and the Americans, who have helped usher in this unprecedented moment, together ride this storm wave of freedom.” Last week, the storm...

When asked by the media for his thoughts on the Hamas triumph in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, former President Jimmy Carter replied that while they have a terrorist past, at least they're not corrupt. One of the complaints by many in the Middle East was the corruption within the Palestinian Authority and Yasser Arafat's Fatah Party. Arafat himself squirreled away millions of dollars from aid packages that were intended to help the Palestinian people. However, Carter's comment appears to dismiss the years of death and destruction perpetrated by Hamas on the Jewish State. And now the fundamental-Islamic group Hamas triumphed...

"Dictatorship naturally arises out of democracy, and the most aggravated form of tyranny and slavery out of the most extreme liberty." -- Plato Please world, spare me the shocking reactions and earthshaking headline stuff. I don't think the average Israeli man or woman in the street was very surprised, nor was your average international diplomat. Surely, President George Bush and members of the US and Israeli governments should wipe that astonished look off of their faces. After all, for more than a decade, Israeli prime ministers, US presidents, and members of the National Security Council, the US Department of State,...

Now that Hamas has apparently won the Palestinian elections, the West is hoist with its own petard. On the one hand, Hamas is a terrorist group that unabashedly targets Israeli civilians and calls for the elimination of the Jewish state. On the other hand, it just won what observers deem to have been a reasonably fair election, and so enjoys the legitimacy that comes from the ballot box. Every foreign ministry now confronts a dilemma: Nudge it to moderation or give up on it as irredeemably extremist? Meet with Hamas members or avoid them? Continue to donate to the Palestinian...

When asked by the media for his thoughts on the Hamas triumph in the Palestinian parliamentary elections, former President Jimmy Carter replied that while they have a terrorist past, at least they're not corrupt. One of the complaints by many in the Middle East was the corruption within the Palestinian Authority and Yasser Arafat's Fatah Party. Arafat himself squirreled away millions of dollars from aid packages that were intended to help the Palestinian people. However, Carter's comment appears to dismiss the years of death and destruction perpetrated by Hamas on the Jewish State. One of the first statements made by...

The Palestinian people have delivered a resounding vote against peace —calling, in their election, for a continuation of the savage and sanguinary war against Israel. This sharp reversal in the peace process should not go without a vigorous response from Washington.

The Bush administration's promotion of democracy forms the core of US foreign policy. It was the pillar of President George W. Bush's second inaugural address a year ago and, officials say, will be reiterated in his State of the Union address tomorrow night. But having assisted Hamas - listed as a terrorist group by the US - to power through elections Washington insisted should take place, the Bush administration is now in a dilemma in the "war on terror". Does it cut off institutional aid to the Palestinians and thus choke the democratic evolution? And, more broadly, does the US...

Hamas' conservative brand of Islam stirs worry among Palestinians By Dion Nissenbaum Knight Ridder Newspapers JIFNA, West Bank - For more than 40 years, Michel Tabash has made a living selling whiskey, beer, vodka and wine at his small family restaurant nestled in this Christian town between olive groves and a Palestinian refugee camp. The restaurant has survived war, Israeli occupation and the economy-draining Palestinian intifada, or uprising, which forced the family to shutter its doors for nearly four years. Now, 18 months after reopening, Tabash is worried that he may be forced out of business again - this time...

Hamas, Like Fatah, Wants All of 'Palestine' By Patrick Goodenough CNSNews.com International Editor January 27, 2006 (CNSNews.com) - A Hamas leader said late Thursday that the terrorist group's victory in the Palestinian legislative elections would "complete the liberation of other parts of Palestine." Ismail Haniyeh, addressing a victory press conference, did not elaborate, but his pledge echoes the covenant adopted by Hamas at its founding in 1988. "The day that enemies usurp part of Muslim land, jihad becomes the individual duty of every Muslim," reads article 15 of the Hamas Charter. "In face of the Jews' usurpation of Palestine, it...

Saudi Arabia could bail the Palestinian Authority out of an impending fiscal crisis following the landslide victory of Hamas if it transfers the $100 million to the Palestinian Authority that it pledged to PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas when he visited there in late December. In addition to bailing out the PA, the money would also give Israel and the world more time to ponder how to deal with the PA following Wednesday's Hamas victory. According to western diplomatic sources, Saudi Arabia pledged the money to Abbas because the European Union refused to transfer payment of some $60 million in November...

The good news from the occupied territories is that Hamas won the elections. As opposed to what the chorus of national intimidation - speaking in one voice from Benjamin Netanyahu to Ami Ayalon - is saying, the political change in Palestine could be good news. Not that the victory of an extremist religious organization is not without dangers and problems, and that a secular, moderate and uncorrupt movement would have been preferable. But, in its absence, one can find quite a few points of light in the Hamas victory. First, these are very authentic results, achieved through elections that were...

The US won't deal with Hamas ministers in a future Palestinian Authority government, but will also not cut off ties with the PA as a result of Hamas's inclusion, diplomatic officials said Monday. According to the officials, the US formula for dealing with a PA government following Wednesday's elections would be based on the "Lebanese model." In Lebanon, the officials said, the US continues to have strong ties with the government in Beirut even though Hizbullah is part of it. It does not, however, have any contact with the one Hizbullah minister. The officials said that since Hamas was on...

Saudi Arabia could bail the Palestinian Authority out of an impending fiscal crisis following the landslide victory of Hamas if it transfers the $100 million to the Palestinian Authority that it pledged to PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas when he visited there in late December. In addition to bailing out the PA, the money would also give Israel and the world more time to ponder how to deal with the PA following Wednesday's Hamas victory. According to western diplomatic sources, Saudi Arabia pledged the money to Abbas because the European Union refused to transfer payment of some $60 million in November...

EDITORIAL: Why Hamas must not be recognizedPrime minister-elect Stephen Harper responded exactly as he should have to last week’s shocking victory of the terrorist group Hamas in the Palestinian elections. He said Canada “supports a secure Israel and a democratic Palestine. But for a nation to be truly democratic, that nation must renounce the use of terrorism.” Precisely. It is Harper’s now-defunct Alliance party that Canadians have to thank for this sensible view. The Alliance succeeded in pressuring the previous Liberal government in 2002 to declare Hamas a terrorist organization. Prior to that, the Liberals couldn’t bring themselves do it,...

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - The European Union could not fund a Hamas-run Palestinian Authority if it did not renounce violence and recognise Israel, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Israel on Sunday. It was the most explicit threat to cut aid from Europe, the biggest donor to the Palestinians, since Islamic militant group Hamas won a shock victory in parliamentary elections last week. The United States has also threatened to block funding. Hamas, expected to form the new government, denounces Western threats to cut aid as blackmail and has rejected calls to disarm and end its formal commitment to destroy Israel....

Column One: The anatomy of Hamas's victory Caroline Glick, THE JERUSALEM POST Jan. 26, 2006 Yesterday we awoke to a new reality: Hamas is the official leader of the Palestinian Authority and - thanks to the US and Israeli governments - the official representative of Arab Jerusalemites. If before Wednesday's poll Hamas concentrated its efforts in conducting its terror war against Israel and indoctrinating Palestinian society to support jihad, now the terror group will continue with its previous activities as the official, popularly elected government of the Palestinian Authority. Hamas's rise to political leadership and the significance of its ascendancy...

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Following their resounding election victory, the Islamic militants of Hamas met the question of whether they will change their stripes with a loud "no": no recognition of Israel, no negotiations, no renunciation of terror.

NOW that Hamas has apparently won the Palestinian elections, the West is hoist with its own petard. On the one hand, Hamas is a terrorist group that unabashedly targets Israeli civilians and calls for the elimination of the Jewish state. On the other hand, it just won what observers deem to have been a reasonably fair election, and so enjoys the legitimacy that comes from the ballot box. Every foreign ministry now confronts a dilemma: nudge Hamas to moderation or give up on it as irredeemably extremist? Meet Hamas members or avoid them? Continue to donate to the Palestinian Authority...

The American administration has an excellent excuse: It is prohibited by law from providing aid to a government that includes members from a terror organization, so the Palestinian government that will include Hamas members will not enjoy American aid. It's an excuse, since it is possible to aid such a government in indirect ways, if that's what the donor wants. Money can be moved to non-government organizations, to pay off the Palestinian Authority debts to Israel by paying companies like the Electric Corp. directly; in short, just as President Bush decided in 2003 to suspend the law that prohibits direct...