Hamas' victory in the elections for the Palestinian Legislative Council created a great deal of uncertainty about Israel's security, the prospects for peace, and life in the West Bank and Gaza.

The Bush Administration, and other actors, responded to this development by laying out criteria that must be met for a Hamas-led Palestinian government to be a viable international actor. On January 26th President Bush stated:

"I don't see how you can be a partner in peace if you advocate the destruction of a country as part of your platform. And I know you can't be a partner in peace...if your party has got an armed wing. The elections just took place. We will watch very carefully about the formation of the government. But I will continue to remind people about what I just said, that if your platform is the destruction of Israel, it means you're not a partner in peace. And we're interested in peace."

Hamas has not yet formed a government or taken the reins of power, so it is not yet clear how Hamas - and President Mahmoud Abbas - will respond to President Bush's message and the implicit ultimatum it contains.

Americans for Peace Now (APN) believes that the international community - led by the U.S. - must pressure Hamas to recognize Israel's right to exist and end violence directed against Israel. APN supports seeing this pressure take the form of specific U.S. sanctions impacting aid to the Palestinian Authority (PA) from the U.S., and impacting contacts with PA officials.

The Israeli government is also proceeding cautiously. On February 5th the Israeli Cabinet decided to continue transferring Palestinian tax-revenue to the PA, but to review this policy on a regular basis.

In contrast to this prudence, some on Capitol Hill are rushing to legislate far-reaching, permanent changes to U.S. policy vis-a-vis the Palestinians. The most serious of these initiatives is HR 4681, a bill introduced by Rep. Ros-Lehtinan (R-FL, Chair of the Middle East and Central Asia Subcommittee of the International Relations Committee) and Rep. Lantos (D-CA, the Ranking Democrat on the International Relations Committee).

HR 4681 goes beyond sanctions targeted to ensure that the PA is led by those who recognize Israel and abandon violence:

• HR 4681 imposes sanctions and restrictions that would remain in place, regardless of the presence (or absence) of terrorists in the PA.

• HR 4681 revokes existing presidential authority to waive certain sanctions should he deem it to be in the national security interests of the United States.

• HR 4681 imposes extensive new requirements on U.S. assistance provided to non-governmental organizations in the West Bank - on top of existing oversight which makes this the most heavily monitored aid program in the world. This could severely hamper the Administration's ability to promote U.S. national security interests in the Palestinian population.

• HR 4681 applies sanctions to the PLO - an organization to which Hamas has never belonged. Given the likelihood of reduced relations with the PA, good lines of communications with the PLO may be of even greater value.

Click here to see the text of HR 4681.
Click here to see APN's message to Congress about HR 4681

Please contact your Representative or Senators, urge them to refrain from precipitously amending U.S. law to limit the President's ability to deal with this unfolding situation.

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