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Palestinian Choices Complicate ME Diplomacy

The Bush administration has strongly urged Palestinian leaders not to permit any Hamas members into the Palestinian cabinet, but this week`s better-than-expected electoral showing by the terrorist organization in Palestinian elections greatly complicates American diplomacy in the region, officials said yesterday. Hamas - dedicated to the destruction of Israel - appeared to have ridden a wave of popular disgust at the perceived corruption and incompetence of the ruling Fatah Party.

Administration officials had hoped Hamas would get as little as 20 percent of the vote. Some newspapers reported last Sunday that the United States had spent $2 million in recent weeks to promote the Palestinian Authority, and by extension Fatah, in a campaign that managed to keep U.S. involvement hidden until the last moment. Before and since Wednesday`s elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, U.S. officials, from President Bush on down, have reiterated that the United States will not deal with Hamas as long as it does not renounce violence.

The American Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, will meet in London this coming week with her counterparts from the European Union, Russia and the United Nations - also known as the Quartet - to try to reach an agreement on how to approach a Palestinian government with Hamas in its cabinet. "There will be a very healthy debate about how to encourage Hamas to eschew violence and get into the political process," one diplomat involved in the discussions said.