The standoff between Hamas and Israel continued to harden with Israel refusing to recognize the Hamas Government in Palestine Territories (PT) and Hamas insisting on continuing its fight against Israel. Efforts by Hamas to form a unity Government that will include all parties and win international recognition seemed impossible with its new statement of principles. This document to the PT President Mahmoud Abbas said that the Hamas Government reserves the right to “reassess” its relationship with Israel. Abbas had invited Hamas to form the Government but after publicly honoring previous accords with Israel, recognizing Israel’s right to exist, and renouncing violence. Hamas has refused to adhere to all these conditions that are also part of the Israeli-Palestine peace process. The outcome of Hamas intransigence is not clear. PT requires international aid to survive and most contributors have stopped all non-humanitarian aid. The nations that belong to the Organization of Islamic Countries contribute the least to PT and Iran has been trying to get them to contribute more so Hamas can continue with its intransigent position. The US and European Union are the largest contributors of aid to PT and they solidly back Israel’s position on these three conditions. Russian President Vladimir Putin had invited Hamas leaders for dialogue. After initial reservations, the US backed him up to open a dialogue with Hamas. However, those talks have not yielded much as Hamas continues to stick to its former antagonistic positions.