JERUSALEM — A month after Hamas's victory, Israel and the United
States disagree over whether to cooperate with the Palestinian Authority.
Officials said the United States has urged Israel to continue to engage
and support the PA despite the Hamas takeover of the Palestinian government.
They said Washington has argued that Israel could limit its contacts with PA
Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, a Fatah leader who has voiced his support for peace
with the Jewish state.
Israel has asserted that the emerging Hamas government means the PA has
come under the control of a terrorist movement. Officials said Abbas, who
has repeatedly threatened to resign, remained in his position merely to
represent the Hamas government to the West, Middle East Newsline reported.
"Abu Mazen [Abbas] can't be a fig leaf for a terrorist regime," Israeli
Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni said. "Abu Mazen can't be the nice face in
front of ugly terrorism."
The argument between Israel and the United States emerged during the
visit of U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch. Over the weekend,
Welch was said to have urged the government of acting Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert to maintain contacts and financing to the PA.
Earlier this month, Israel relayed more than $50 million to the PA. Ms.
Livni said Israel wants the United States and international community to
limit any support to humanitarian aid to the PA.
"We are trying to cope with the situation as it is," Ms. Livni said. "We
expect the international community to do the same."
[On Monday, the Israeli daily Haaretz reported that the Olmert
government has agreed to adopt U.S. demands for greater transparency of
Israeli defense exports. The newspaper said that under the demands, the
Israeli Defense Ministry would form a so-called supreme advisory council for
defense exports that would contain representatives of the Foreign Ministry
and Trade and Industry Ministry.]
Officials said the argument between Israel and the United States -- the
first public tiff regarding the PA since 2002 -- has not developed into
crisis proportions. But they said Olmert has decided to highlight the
disagreement in a signal to Congress, which opposes U.S. aid to the PA.
Olmert, accused by the opposition of being soft on Hamas, has not pledged to
boycott Abbas.
"There is no dispute over the need to change Hamas," Amos Gilad,
director of the Defense Ministry's political-military division, said.
The U.S. pressure on Israel came in wake of the failure by Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice to persuade Arab allies to halt financing to the PA.
Last week, Ms. Rice was rebuffed in such countries as Egypt, Saudi Arabia
and the United Arab Emirates.
Over the last few weeks, the European Union and the so-called Quartet
has decided to maintain aid to the PA. On Monday, EU foreign ministers
agreed to relay $142 million to the PA.
Earlier, James Wolfensohn, the envoy of the so-called Quartet warned
that the PA would collapse within two weeks unless Israel relays another $50
million. The Quartet is composed of the EU, United States, United Nations
and Russia.
"Without a better effort, public finances will not be stabilized and
there will be no alternative but deterioration in the overall situation,"
Wolfensohn warned in a Feb. 25 letter to the Quartet.
[On Monday, an explosion was reported at the state-owned Rafael, Israel
Armament Development Authority near Haifa. Rafael has been deemed the
leading weapons developer in Israel. Officials said the explosion was not
the work of insurgents. They said four people were injured in what was
deemed an accident.]
Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said that under Hamas the PA plans to
become an ally of Iran and Syria. Mofaz was quoted as having told Welch that
a Hamas delegation that visited Teheran a week ago sought to secure Iranian
support, "something that would facilitate the axis of evil of
Iran-Syria-Hizbullah-Hamas."
"We know of plans to tighten relations between Hamas and Hizbullah,
which may institutionalize Iranian control over the Palestinian Authority,"
Mofaz said. "This we cannot accept."
