ubertuber

There's another set of questions raised by these events.

As a democratically elected government, Hamas is only a proxy for the Palestinian people. Presumably they were elected because their views are seen as productive or at least consonant with those of the people who bothered to vote. However you elect to "negotiate with terrorists", I think it is worthwhile to examine why they are now in power. Whether you are pro-Israel or pro-Palestine, the election of a sizable majority of Hamas seats in Parliament indicates a real sense of discontent among the Palestinian electorate. Clearly they didn't feel that their previous government was getting the job done.

It's my feeling that the Palestinian voters were right about that - Abbas wasn't effective. However, a big reason for that is that Sharon wasn't giving him much to work with. The Palestinian government has been largely ignored in recent months. I believe that the "Palestinian on the street" has watched as their own government was marginalized by the people that they see as adversaries. Given that, I think any expectation that voters would settle for the status quo was extremely naive. So, in some way, Israel has its own policies to thank for the fact that they'll be living next to a "terrorist" government. Perhaps if Israel had given Abbas more room to sit at the table and negotiate, they'd be seeing a different outcome on election day.

I also think that, in the end, Hamas being given legitimacy is a positive development, at least for pragmatic reasons. The Palestinian viewpoint has been advanced by a number of factions that have differing levels of legitimacy. Despite this varying degree of support (or authority), many of these factions have the ability to harm Israeli citizens. Before, the Israeli government could make agreements with the Palestinian Authority and still be left fending off attacks from Hamas, because Hamas didn't feel bound by official negotiations that they weren't included in. Hopefully, more of these "rogue" groups will feel represented by a Hamas government - which would make Israel's negotations seem less like herding cats.

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Cogito ergo spud -- I think, therefore I yam