CRAWFORD: The United States could be tempted to leave the Gaza Strip in the hands of Hamas, turning a political setback into an opportunity to revive the Middle East peace process.

But experts agree that events in Gaza have left the US administration few options and that it is making a dangerous calculation.

The idea would be to leave Hamas in control of the Gaza Strip, after its seizure last week by the militant Islamist group in a bloody fight with the Fatah faction of Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas.

Meanwhile, Abbas – still in control of the West Bank where the Fatah movement is predominant – would benefit from support offered by the United States, Israel and the European Union.

He would also be able to resume negotiations with Israel.

Following the example of the European Union, the United States expressed its full support for Abbas’s dismissal of Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya and the disbandment of the national unity government.

Abbas swore in a new 12-member emergency cabinet on yesterday headed by new Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a moderate with whom Israelis and Westerners believe they will be able to cooperate.

The United States has already announced its intention to renew the badly-needed financial aid to the Palestinian Authority it suspended last year when Hamas took control of the Palestinian government.

Meanwhile, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is expected to ask US President George W. Bush when they meet tomorrow at the White House to consider Gaza and the West Bank two distinct entities.

The US administration has said it has no intention of abandoning the Gaza Strip to its own devices.

“No one wants to abandon the hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people in the Gaza Strip to the mercies of a terrorist organisation,” White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said on Friday.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said he was confident that the new Fayyad administration would be “a Palestinian government for all Palestinians, including in Gaza.” But he acknowledged that the new government had little chance of having its authority respected in Gaza, and underscored that Hamas now had the responsibility to provide for 1.5 million people living in Gaza.

Since Gaza gets its water, electricity and other basic necessities from Israel, Hamas could be inclined to tame hostilities toward the Jewish state.

If their living conditions deteriorate, Palestinians under Hamas in Gaza could turn to the West Bank and see the advantages of reconciliation with Israel.

The US administration already had to face the hard facts of Middle Eastern reality in 2006, when Hamas won Palestinian elections.—AFP