The Israeli Cabinet yesterday overwhelmingly approved Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's call to boycott the new Palestinian government. Shortly thereafter, the United States said it was ready to work with members of the new Palestinian government "who are not from the ruling Hamas movement".
In fact, the moves by Washington and Tel Aviv were expected. Israel has repeatedly called for the international community to uphold a boycott of the entire government until it "explicitly agrees to international demands" including recognition of the Jewish state and "renunciation of violence".
That ignores the fact that Hamas was elected in a democratic process described by the United Nations and foreign observers as fair and transparent.
Nevertheless, the first Hamas government didn't survive the international boycott and led to the starvation of the Palestinian people, the bankruptcy of the government and eventually bloody clashes between Hamas and its rival Fatah movement, led by President Mahmoud Abbas.
Hamas was forced to form a new unity government to ease the restrictions. Fatah ministers now hold powerful posts, in accordance with the Makkah agreement that ended the clashes. With that, Hamas has done its part of the deal. It is now upon the Arab League and the UN to lift the restrictions imposed on the Palestinian government last year.
Few expect Israel to make life easy for the Esmail Haniya government as long as Hamas refuses to lay down its arms. But it will be painfully surprising to see Arab and European governments follow the Israeli-American line.
The Palestinians look forward to this month's Arab summit in Saudi Arabia for a strong and unambiguous statement of support. It is the only way to bring Hamas into the peace efforts.
The world, particularly the US, must know that by continuing to isolate Hamas, they are only empowering the radical elements within the movement.
via Gulf News