The Terrorist organization Hamas wins palestinian elections!

[James_xeno]

GAZA (Reuters) - The Islamic militant Hamas group swept to victory over the long-dominant

Fatah party on Thursday in Palestinian parliamentary polls, a political earthquake that could bury any hope for reviving peace talks with

Israel soon.

The shock outcome, acknowledged by Fatah ahead of official results, does not automatically unseat President Mahmoud Abbas, a moderate elected last year after

Yasser Arafat's death. But he has said he might resign if unable to pursue a peace policy.

"Today we woke up and the sky was a different color. We have entered a new era," Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said after Hamas announced it had won more than 70 seats in the 132-member parliament in Wednesday's election.

Official results were due around 7 p.m. (1700 GMT)

With peace negotiations stalled since 2000 and Israel and Hamas bitter enemies, Israeli interim Prime Minister Ehud Olmert could opt for more unilateral moves, following last year's Gaza pullout, to shape borders on land Palestinians want for a state.

Olmert, who took over from

Ariel Sharon after the 77-year-old leader's January 4 stroke, suggested as much in a speech this week in which he repeated peace talks could not resume unless the

Palestinian Authority disarmed militants.

U.S. Secretary of State

Condoleezza Rice said Washington's view of Hamas as a terrorist group was unchanged after the poll. Hamas has carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings in Israel since a Palestinian uprising began more than five years ago.

"As we have said, you cannot have one foot in politics and the other in terror," Rice said in broadcast remarks from the

World Economic Forum in Switzerland.

Rice telephoned Abbas to voice continued U.S. support, an Abbas spokesman said. Earlier, Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie of Fatah and his cabinet quit in the face of the Hamas victory. Abbas asked him to stay on in a caretaker capacity.

The United States is the main sponsor of a long-stalled "road map" peace plan that charts mutual steps toward the creation of a Palestinian state alongside a secure Israel.

Commentators in the Arab world predicted pragmatism would eventually prevail, with Hamas softening a position that now calls for the Jewish state's destruction and Israel forging contacts with a new Palestinian powerhouse on its doorstep.

In the streets of Gaza, Hamas activists embraced, fired guns in the air and handed out sweets.

VETO

Leaders of the

European Union, the biggest aid donor to the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority, said Hamas must renounce violence and recognize Israel or risk international isolation.

Under Palestinian law, the biggest party in the 132-member parliament can veto the president's choice of a prime minister, effectively enabling Hamas to shape the next cabinet.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev declined comment amid reports that Olmert had told cabinet ministers not to speak out before top-level consultations on the Hamas win.

A senior Fatah official said it appeared Hamas was propelled to victory by public frustration over the mainstream faction's failure to achieve Palestinian statehood and anger over years of corruption in its institutions and in the Palestinian Authority.

Hamas officials held out the possibility of a coalition with Fatah and other parties -- and reaffirmed the group's commitment to what it calls armed resistance against Israeli occupation, as well as its opposition to negotiations with Israel.

Hamas's politburo chief Khaled Meshaal telephoned Abbas to affirm "a commitment to partnership with all the Palestinian forces, including the brothers in the Fatah movement."

But Jibril Rajoub, a senior Fatah official, rejected any coalition with Hamas, a group that Abbas had said he hoped to bring into the political mainstream and persuade to disarm.

Although Hamas's charter calls for Israel's elimination in favor of an Islamic state, its armed wing has largely respected a truce negotiated by Abbas and Egypt nearly a year ago.

In the wider Middle East, the Hamas victory was seen as strengthening the hand of those who favor democracy even at the risk of removing authoritarian Arab governments which themselves face Islamist opposition movements sympathetic to Hamas.

U.S. President George W. Bush said on Wednesday he would not deal with Hamas unless it accepted Israel's existence.

Voting in Wednesday's election was orderly despite weeks of armed chaos. More than 400 candidates ran locally in the first parliamentary elections since 1996. About 900 foreign observers, led by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, were present.

Three exit polls had forecast a slim Fatah victory in the election. Turnout was 78 percent of the 1.3 million voters.

(Additional reporting by Wafa Amr and Mohammed Assadi in Ramallah, Allyn Fisher-Ilan, Jeffrey Heller and Matt Spetalnick in Jerusalem, Saul Hudson in Washington, Mark Trevelyan in Davos and Jonathan Wright in Cairo)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060126/ts_nm/mideast_dc_64

Well let's hope that they're willing to leave their violent anti Israel and terroristic past behind them or we could forget about the hope for peace anytime soon...! :mellow:

[Poophy]

Its possible that becoming a political force may force them to take a less radical approach to Israel. But if they don’t, this is a major step backwards on the so called “road amp to peace”. After all, one of hamases goals has always been to wipe Israel off the map…