Hardball II

Rice: All Alone on Middle East Peace | TIME: "Abbas is also tottering. He has no control over his Fatah militias in Gaza. His Fatah Central Committee now openly derides him as a stooge of the Americans and Israelis. And, in talks with Rice, he delivered a bombshell, TIME has learned. He passed along a warning from Hamas leaders that if the Bush Administration and the international community keeps on pressing the militant group to recognize the Jewish state and halt terrorism, with nothing in exchange — such as lifting of an embargo on the Palestinian territories or a release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails — it can expect grim consequences.

Abbas told Rice that Hamas intends to drop out of the unity government within two months and resume their resistance against Israel, stepping up rocket attacks and suicide bombings. Since Hamas took office in March, the Israelis and the U.S. have wanted to topple the elected government of Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh, but the specter of an all-out terror campaign by Palestinian militant groups against Israel — aided by Iran and radical Muslims throughout the region — is more than Olmert or the White House bargained for."