World Watch: U.S. puts on brave face after Hamas victory
Some Bush administration officials are scrambling to show they are not vexed by the surprise electoral victory of Hamas—a movement regarded by Washington as a terrorist group—in this week's Palestinian parliamentary elections.
Despite the deep disappointment at the outcome, a senior State Department official offered a surprisingly upbeat take on the election, saying, "There's a lot positive." The official notes that the elections were held on time, had a turnout of 73 percent, and have been judged "free and fair" by thousands of on-the-ground observers.
"That's pretty noteworthy," says the official. Those points are important to the administration, which has made democratic progress in the Middle East a central theme of its foreign policy. The official disputes the contention by some analysts that the election results constitute a body blow to the administration's Mideast peace approach, shaken both by Hamas's surge at the polls and the incapacitation of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, who suffered a massive stroke.
This is as close as the official would come to conceding major policy damage: "This outcome has shuffled the deck . . . . It was a tough slog even without this result." The official added that State Department and other government lawyers will be examining the potential "intersection" of U.S. development funds and Hamas itself as a prelude to decisions about whether aid to the Palestinian Authority will need to be cut off.
Though the administration is sure to face pressure by supporters of Israel, some conservatives, and others to end aid to a Hamas-led Palestinian government, the official was noncommittal, saying there were a number of "different scenarios" on U.S. aid policy.
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