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Hang Tough with Hamas
[Los Angeles Times] Editorial - On Tuesday, the U.S. consul general in Jerusalem met the Palestinian finance minister in the West Bank town of Ramallah. In authorizing such a contact, Secretary of State Rice was breaking ranks with Israel, which has refused to talk to representatives of the Hamas-Fatah coalition. But, now as in the past, some daylight between the U.S. and Israeli positions is desirable - for both Israel and the U.S. - because it allows Washington to play interlocutor. The Bush administration rightly is drawing the line, however, in refusing to restore aid to the Palestinian Authority until Hamas satisfies the Quartet's conditions. And Hamas has not done so. In a speech last Saturday, the Hamas prime minister, Ismail Haniyeh, defended "resistance in all its forms" even as Abbas was pleading with Palestinians to reject "all forms of violence." On Monday, a Hamas sniper shot and wounded an Israeli electric company worker near the Gaza border. Fortunately, an embargo on aid to the PA hasn't prevented humanitarian assistance from reaching Palestinians through organizations such as the UN's World Food Program. That fact makes it easier for the U.S. to argue - even as it talks to Palestinian moderates - that the Quartet must hang tough with Hamas.