The United States will not deal with Hamas, whatever the outcome of Palestinian legislative elections, a senior official said. “There is an American law, we can’t deal with them,” David Welch, the State Department’s top envoy to the Middle East, told Congress on Wednesday. “So between now and January,” when the elections take place, “or after January, I don’t think they’re going to change this law, and we would continue to observe that law.”
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.