New questions for Hamas

With its capture of at least a third of the vote in Wednesday8217;s parliamentary election, the Islamist group Hamas has cemented its place...

With its capture of at least a third of the vote in Wednesday8217;s parliamentary election, the Islamist group Hamas has cemented its place in the heart of the Palestinian political establishment and fundamentally altered it. But the group now faces dilemmas it has never confronted before.

Hamas will have to decide whether to enter into a parliamentary alliance with its archrival, Fatah, and whether to take Cabinet positions in a new government controlled by Fatah. Most importantly, it must decide whether to formally renounce its stated goal of Israel8217;s destruction and open the way for negotiations with the Jewish state.

With roots in the streets and mosques of Gaza Strip refugee camps, Hamas has always harboured deep mistrust of the secular-minded ruling Fatah movement. The group8217;s very name, an Arabic acronym for Islamic Resistance Movement, was a deliberate rebuke to all who sought accommodation of any kind with Israel.

Hamas by no means speaks with one voice on these crucial questions, even when the same person is doing the talking. In recent days, views aired by Hamas candidates and officials have ranged from conciliatory to studiedly vague to utterly unyielding. 8216;8216;Never!8217;8217; snapped Mahmoud Zahar, a senior figure in the group, when asked on Wednesday whether Hamas would recognise Israel. But Zahar, one of the few Hamas8217; members to escape assassination by Israeli forces over the last 2 1/2 years, also said this week that negotiations with Israel were not 8216;8216;taboo,8217;8217; especially if conducted through a third party.

During the last two decades, Hamas built a strong following by trading on its perceived standing as an outsider. As a part of the Palestinian power structure will inevitably change that dynamic.

Governance of the West Bank and Gaza, as the Palestinian authority has long since discovered, is a messy affair. Hamas honed a reputation for fiscal integrity while administering its far-flung network of schools, clinics and charities, but playing any significant role in the sprawling, ineffectual Palestinian bureaucracy carries the risk of taint.

Impassioned debate has broken out over whether the Jewish state can possibly have any political dealings with a group whose suicide bombings wrought carnage on commuter buses and in crowded markets. But former PM Shimon Peres, a senior figure in the centrist Kadima Party that is expected to win Israel8217;s March 28 elections, argued that Israel should realise that pragmatic self-interest may have changed Hamas8217; agenda. 8212; LAT-WP

Shock and caution

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8226; Israel Foreign Ministry: It is incumbent on the EU to speak out clearly and unequivocally that there will be no European understanding of a process that would mean the establishment of a terrorist government.

8226; French PM Dominique De Villepin: Indispensable conditions for France to be able to work with any Palestinian government included the renunciation of violence and 8230; the recognition of Israel.

8226; British Foreign Secy Jack Straw: The international community will want Hamas to make a proper rejection of violence and acknowledge that Israel exists.

8226; Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi: A Hamas victory is very, very negative.

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8226; Swedish Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds: Hamas should radically change its politics, otherwise Sweden and the EU cannot cooperate with the incoming Palestinian government.

8226; Russia8217;s special envoy to the Middle East, Alexander Kalugin: Our general policy of cooperation with the Palestinian Authority is unchanged.

8226; EU foreign policy Chief Javier Solana: These results may confront us with an entirely new situation which will need to be analysed by the Council of EU foreign ministers next Monday.

8226; Pakistan foreign ministry spokeswoman Tasnim Aslam: This is democracy at work. They Hamas candidates were elected in violence-free elections.