By John Leicester
The Associated Press/The Seattle Times

PARIS – World leaders squirmed with unease at the prospect of a Hamas-led Palestinian government and immediately started pressuring the Islamic militants today to recognize Israel and renounce violence as a precondition for ties.

Israel, the United States and the European Union have said they would not deal with a government led by Hamas, which has carried out dozens of suicide bombings, seeks Israel's destruction and has said it opposes peace talks and will not disarm. Both the United States and EU list Hamas as a terrorist organization.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the U.S. position on Hamas has not changed despite the election outcome.

"You cannot have one foot in politics and another in terror," she told an international conference in Davos, Switzerland, via a telephone hookup from Washington. "Our position on Hamas has, therefore, not changed."

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said any group that participates in a democratic process should "ultimately disarm." Otherwise, he said, there was a "fundamental contradiction."

Italy said the militant group's resounding — and surprising — victory in legislative elections Wednesday could indefinitely postpone any chance of Israeli-Palestinian peace and make the creation of a Palestinian state more difficult.

"It is a very, very, very bad result," Italian news agencies quoted Premier Silvio Berlusconi as saying.

Concern crossed political divides, with traditional supporters of the Palestinian cause — like Italy's center-left opposition — among those expressing concern.

In the Arab world, some were jubilant. Hamas' win topped the news on state-run radio in Iran, which is accused by Israel and the United States of supplying Hamas and other Palestinian militants with weapons and funding.

"This is a victory to all the region's free people," said Ayyoub Muhanna, 29, who owns a spare parts shop in Lebanon. "The Palestinians gave their vote to the party that gave of its blood."

Sweden's foreign minister, Laila Freivalds, said Hamas' showing was "a protest against those in power who have not done enough, a reaction to the incapacity to lead the political process forward."

The dilemma for Western democracies was compounded by Hamas' seemingly fair-and-square win — American monitors led by former President Carter said the elections were "completely honest, completely fair, completely safe and without violence."

Rice said she called Abbas, Annan and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

"The Palestinians have a constitutional process that they will now follow. We ask all parties to respect this process so that it can unfold in an atmosphere of calm and security," Rice said.

British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said the international community "has the responsibility to accept" the elections results, but he added that "Hamas has a clear responsibility to understand that with democracy goes a rejection of violence."

British Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman was blunter: "We can only do business with people who renounce terrorism."

Freivalds, the Swedish minister, said the 25-nation EU will not be able to cooperate with Hamas unless it changes its policies. The French prime minister laid out what he described as "indispensable" conditions: renouncing violence, accepting progress toward peace, recognizing Israel and recognizing international accords, notably the Oslo peace accords.

EU foreign ministers meeting Monday will discuss the bloc's response. The so-called Quartet — the United Nations, the United States, Russia and the EU — which drafted the so-called "road map" to prod Israel and the Palestinians into a negotiated peace settlement, also will meet Monday.

"These (election) results may confront us with an entirely new situation which will need to be analyzed," EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said.

The EU has given millions of dollars in aid to the Palestinian Authority to help reconstruction efforts in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank — funding that was called into question following the Hamas win.

"It is obvious that the EU would never countenance funding a regime that continued an armed fight against Israel," said Ignasi Guardans, a Spanish member of the European Parliament. "But we cannot push for democracy and then deny the result of free and fair elections."

Nothing an invasion won't clean up.

I don't think that peace will come soon, but I do think that in order for the Palestinians to not blow all of themselves up, the will need to stop some of the terrorist attacks in order to not destroy themselves and get support from other countries in order to continue peace.

I think that if peace comes, it will not be for a little while the Palestinians get their government under control and relize that they will need to maintain peace in order to be better off.

Go to my blog at http://journals.ao.com/bmbg10/stuff/

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the land of my people (along with most other religions) is Israel.

Ooh, an American religious conquest! Hear hear!

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True, but we can not leave Israel hung out to dry. My concern is the well-being of Israel and that state, even though it has the strongest army, needs the US's help.

I completely understand and agree with some of your points, benje. Simultanesously, I believe that continuously drawing from our funds for social services and the like are not worth becoming the hypocritical saviors of the Middle East. Though countries in the Middle East have a lot to offer (i.e. faith, petroleum), we have to keep appropriate tabs of our home's conditions before making another country our first priority.
If Israel were the land of my people, I'd have a passion to fight for it too. Even though it isn't, I'd like to stick up for it anyway. That's just the sort of gal I am. But depleting some of our prided American sources such as education, etc. isn't worth making a shaky, controversial attempt to lend a hend elsewhere.

Honestly, i dont see anything good coming out of Hamas winning the election. At least, nothing for the peace in the middle east.

It's perfect legit. Why should the US supply money to people whom they don't support? Makes a whole lot of sense to me.

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Originally posted by bluedemocrat:
If Hamas does not improve its stance, there is no reason why the US should provide the Palestinians with money. The US can still support democracy without approving of the outcome. Hopefully, by withholding aid, the US can nudge Hamas in the direction of supporting peaceful coexistance with Israel.

So the US says hold elections. Palestinians hold elections. And now the US says we're taking away aid.

... Yeah, thanks a lot Bush. Can you see where the Anti-American feelings come from?

Personally, I think that Hamas was so succesful because the Palestinian people were sick of the corruption in the Fatah party. Hamas did not run on an anti-Israel platform at all. Maybe with the responsibility of leading the Palestinians, the Hamas leaders will renounce their anti-Israel stance. I have seen polls that say the overwhelming majority of the Palestinian people support peace with Israel. If Hamas does not clean-up its act, then the rest of the world (particulary Europe which is soooo anti-Israel) is going to see that Hamas is a really a terrorist org. If Hamas does not improve its stance, there is no reason why the US should provide the Palestinians with money. The US can still support democracy without approving of the outcome. Hopefully, by withholding aid, the US can nudge Hamas in the direction of supporting peaceful coexistance with Israel.

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We should clean up after ourselves before meddling overseas (again) and deciding who's wrong and what we can do to stop them.

True, but we can not leave Israel hung out to dry. My concern is the well-being of Israel and that state, even though it has the strongest army, needs the US's help.

We may have problems here at home, but the land of my people (along with most other religions) is Israel. We need to protect it from the terrorists who want to destroy it.

The US wanted democracy all over the Middle East, and the first big thing they label democratic they don't approve of. The irony is killing me.

Hamas is restricted to attacking targets in Israel right? Their whole point is resistance to Israel, and if the Palestinian people have chosen Hamas to lead them, then they have chosen resistance. And whatever, it's better than chosing Fateh again because those corrupt bastards haven't done shit with their power.

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I think that the US needs to stay involved. The Hamas is a terrorist organization and should not be in terrorism and politics, it only makes things messier.

Sure, but what good could possibly come of the US continuing its participation in this mess?
Who is the US to judge other countries and serve as Mr. Fix-it, especially when problems are ceaselessly on the rise over here?
We should clean up after ourselves before meddling overseas (again) and deciding who's wrong and what we can do to stop them.

The Peace Process looks like it is falling apart. The violence never stops and the words are only getting more vicious. It is sad to see, but I think that the US needs to stay involved. The Hamas is a terrorist organization and should not be in terrorism and politics, it only makes things messier.

Exactly, clpo.
Whatever reaction the US has to this is gonna get us more or less screwed. Our government should discontinue lacking in the mending of the US rather than stubbornly playing Zorro somewhere else. They should just shut up and back away slowly, because wiser options are limited and probably wouldn't happen considering the people we're dealing with.

Surprise, surprise. Palestine has free elections, and the US doesn't like their choice of leaders.

Of course, I just wish we'd leave the Middle East to it's troubles. In an unwinnable situation like this, the best policy is noninterference. We'll only get burned if we keep sticking our nose in things. Especially if our government continues to take the "We don't deal with terrorists" stance.

Not good. Coupled with Sharon's comatose state, this recent development is not going to help stability in the Middle East. Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel. Glove, what do you think is going to happen?