While the US administration has agreed to accept the participation of Hamas activists in the Palestinian elections, Congress is working on a resolution that will ban Hamas from taking part in the election process and that threatens that the relations between the Palestinian Authority and the US would be damaged if the PA does not disarm Hamas.

House Resolution 575 was introduced last Friday by a group of Republican and Democratic congressmen and was referred to the House International Relations committee. A similar letter is circulating now in Senate.

The resolution asserts that terrorist groups such as the Hamas should not be allowed to take part in the elections and calls on Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas to declare, prior to the elections, his intention to dismantle the terrorist organizations operating in the territories...