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With the Peace Process on Hold, Washington Still Faces Key Israeli-Palestinian Tests

(Washington Institute for Near East Policy) Robert Satloff - While it is no longer a front-burner topic, the Israeli-Palestinian peace process will require a number of critical decisions by the Obama administration in the coming weeks. The administration's first challenge is how to respond to the expected announcement of the formation of a new Hamas-Fatah Palestinian government. As various spokesmen have affirmed, Washington will only work with a government that endorses the "Quartet principles," i.e., recognition of Israel's right to exist, renunciation of violence and terror, and endorsement of previous Israeli-Palestinian agreements. While the legislative language governing U.S. aid to the Palestinians offers the administration wiggle room to argue for providing assistance to a Hamas-backed government that affirms the Quartet principles, the administration evidently gave Israel a specific promise that it would not deal with any Palestinian government "backed by Hamas." According to authoritative American and Israeli sources, that broader assurance was first made to Israel by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton following President Obama's May 2011 addresses on the Middle East. The assurance was then specifically affirmed by Secretary of State John Kerry prior to the start of his peace initiative last year. A related question is whether the U.S. will condone Hamas participation in the next Palestinian elections. In 2006, the Bush administration acceded to Hamas participation so that the Palestinian people could choose their own leaders as they saw fit, confident in the theory that governance itself would be a moderating experience if Hamas won. The unintended result was Hamas' surprise victory and eventual takeover of Gaza. Condoleezza Rice, a vocal advocate of Hamas inclusion in the elections when she served as secretary of state, wrote in her memoirs, "In retrospect, we should have insisted that every party disarm as a condition for participating in the vote." The writer is executive director of The Washington Institute.
2014-06-02 00:00:00
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