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America in the Middle East

White House highlights double standard on Hamas


By Jerusalem Newswire Editorial Staff
April 14, 2005

Hamas is recognized by the US State Department as a terrorist organization, but the Bush White House says it has no objection to members of the group who wear suits and don’t openly bear arms playing the role of legitimate politicians.

A recent public opinion survey conducted by the Al-Mustiqbal Center in Gaza indicated Hamas could win a considerable number of seats in the upcoming elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council.

Fifty-two percent of respondents said they would be voting for Hamas, while only 13 percent said they would cast a ballot for PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction.

Hamas would gain even more power if, as expected, it chooses to run on a joint list with its sister Islamic terror group, the Islamic Jihad.

At Wednesday’s White House press briefing, WorldNetDaily’s Les Kinsolving asked spokesman Scott McClellan how the Bush administration would react to Hamas assuming majority control over the PA legislature.

Failing to recognize the differences between Western and Middle Eastern politics, McClellan responded that “when people have elections that are free and fair … they tend to choose people who are committed to improving their livelihood, not people who are committed to terrorist acts.”

McClellan asserted that even though Hamas had already won several local elections, the group’s candidates in those instances were “business professionals … not terrorists.”

Indicative of the type of leadership Hamas would provide, Gaza-based Hamas leader Mohammed al-Zahar told The Times of London Thursday that Israel’s decision to withdraw from the Gaza Strip was a clear victory for “Palestinian” terrorism, and an inspiration for further violence.

“Very simply, nobody can deny that if Israel is going to leave the Gaza Strip and part of the West Bank, that was because of the intifada, because of the armed struggle, because of the big sacrifices of Hamas for this goal. It was not because of negotiations, or the goodwill of Israel, or the Americans or Europeans,” Zahar said.

Hamas is dedicated to the violent eradication of the Jewish state, and has killed hundreds of Israeli men, women and children over the past four years.

Signaling that not all Americans hold to the notion that Hamas can be both a terrorist entity and legitimate provider of goodwill, a US district court Wednesday convicted three US Muslims for transferring funds to Hamas, which also conducts charitable activity.

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