Rice urged to deal with Hamas

JTA

August 14, 2007

A dovish pro-Israel group urged Condoleezza Rice to contact Palestinians affiliated with Hamas to alleviate the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip.

"In the name of ensuring humanitarian treatment of the Palestinian people, please consider a pragmatic policy of contact with those Palestinians in control of the Gaza side of these border crossings who may be affiliated with Hamas," Marcia Freedman, the Brit Tzedek v'Shalom president, said in a letter sent last Friday to the U.S. secretary of state.

Rice has pledged to funnel $40 million in emergency assistance to Gaza now that it has been taken over by the terrorist group, but will not deal with Hamas. Such dealings are banned under U.S. law.

"Without such contact, we fear a dangerous resurgence of attacks against Israelis and renewed factional violence in Gaza," Freedman wrote. "This approach has also been suggested by former Secretary of State Colin Powell
and Efraim Halevy, former chief of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency."