Lawmakers circulate letter on Japan

Four members of the U.S. House of Representatives are circulating a letter to colleagues urging Japan not to directly fund the Palestinian Authority. The letter, initiated by Reps. Eric Cantor (R-Va.), Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), Steven Rothman (D-N.J.) and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), was prompted by a report in Yomiuri, a major Japanese daily, that Japan was considering ending its participation in West’s isolation of the Palestinian Authority while it’s governed by Hamas, a terrorist group that rejects Israel’s existence. “Both the United States and the European Union currently list Hamas as a terrorist organization,” says the letter, addressed to the Japanese ambassador to the United States and circulated Thursday among lawmakers for their signatures. “Hamas is responsible for the murders of many American, European, Asian and Israeli civilians.”