By David K. Shipler
It’s nice
for Egypt’s new government, led by the Muslim Brotherhood, that the United
States has handcuffed itself by refusing to deal directly with Hamas. And
perhaps it’s just as well, since Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi has more
influence with Hamas than Secretary of State Hillary Clinton would. Plus, he
gets to play a pivotal role in the eternally exasperating Israeli-Palestinian
conflict. Lucky him.
But it’s
not so great for American interests that the “terrorist” label, which the U.S.
government has imposed on Hamas, carries such a broad set of taboos as to
restrict Washington’s flexibility in a crisis.
Hamas employs terrorism,
obviously—witness today’s bus bombing in Tel Aviv, the random rocketing of Israeli
civilians—but it was also elected to govern Gaza, which Israel voluntarily left
to the Palestinian residents in 2005. Denying Hamas the symbol of legitimacy it
would gain through contact with American officials may be morally satisfying,
but it has about as much impact on reality as the U.S. embargo of Cuba.
