The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported Tuesday that leading members of the the House Foreign Affairs Committee are questioning the Obama administration’s apparent decision to cooperate with the Palestinian unity government that was agreed to last week between the ruling Fatah party and the Gaza-based terrorist group Hamas.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Rep. Ted Deutch (D-FL), respectively the chairman and the ranking Democrat of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Middle East and North Africa Subcommittee, addressed a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry.

Ros-Lehtinen and Deutch said in the letter that they are ready to convene a hearing on the issue so that the Obama administration can explain how any ongoing relationship would not violate US law, which bans interactions with Hamas. Ros-Lehtinen authored the 2006 law which bans such contacts.

United States law clearly dictates that no U.S. funding will go to “any entity effectively controlled by Hamas, any power-sharing government of which Hamas is a member, or that results from an agreement with Hamas and over which Hamas exercises undue influence.” Furthermore, throughout the reconciliation process with Fatah, senior Hamas members reiterated – even just last week – that the terrorist group has no intention of living up to or abiding by the Quartet principles. Any decision to work with this unity government could be extraordinarily counterproductive in our efforts both to promote peace and to help support the security of our ally Israel.

A bipartisan group of legislators, including Deutch, are also refusing to extend further sanctions relief to Iran in the absence of a convincing explanation for the possible military dimensions of Iran’s nuclear program.

Though initially the administration expressed its “disappointment” with the pending deal in late April, when the unity deal was actually agreed to last week, the White House expressed its willingness to work with the new government. When pressed about the incompatibility of the Fatah-Hamas unity deal and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s commitments to Israel, State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki evaded the question, saying, “President Abbas has consistently upheld his responsibility to maintain security coordination…”

In the absence of strong action from the administration, many in Congress have been pushing that American law linking Palestinian aid to rejection of terrorism be followed.

[Photo: Cliff / Flickr ]