The Egyptian foreign minister urged the American secretary of state not to do anything rash. "Give Hamas time," he said.

Maybe the Americans should listen to their Egyptian ally.

That's not what the Bush administration is inclined to do. It regards Hamas (the Islamic Resistance Movement) as a terrorist organization, which it is. The Americans say they will not deal with Hamas - despite the fact that it won last month's democratic elections in the West Bank and Gaza Strip - until it renounces violence and accepts Israel's right to exist.

The United States and European Union are urging other governments to cut off the $1.9 billion in aid that keeps the Palestinian Authority afloat financially.

That all makes sense as far as it goes. If you believe that the only thing that radical Islamists respect is power and brute force, that is the right strategy.

But the Egyptian government, which has no love for Islamist outfits like Hamas, is urging a more moderate approach. Hamas has observed a cease-fire with Israel for more than a year. If it agrees to extend that truce, and goes about the business of turning the Palestinian Authority into an honest government, maybe the United States should continue its aid.

By contrast, discontinuing it will only drive Hamas further into the arms of Iran and other Islamic radicals for financial support. Then the United States will have even less leverage than it has now.

We realize that there may be little chance that Hamas will ever change its stripes and agree to an accommodation with Israel. It is a radical Islamist organization which, to date, has been devoted to Israel's destruction. Perhaps, as its critics say, Hamas is just biding time so it can build strength for new attacks on the Jewish state.

But so long as Hamas behaves, the United States should reward good behavior. If it returns to violence, then the United States and its allies can cut off aid. In the meantime, the Americans can work to persuade the leaders of Hamas of the wisdom that other Arab leaders in Egypt and Jordan have realized: Only a peace agreement that recognizes Israel and creates a Palestinian state can alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people.