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Experts View Hamas' Victory

(TIME) Dennis Ross: Hamas is going to have to make choices because they're going to need the outside world if they're going to deliver for the Palestinians. No one should make it easier for them and let them off the hook. International organizations and governments that want to get aid to the Palestinians shouldn't deal with Hamas without exacting a commitment to peace. The Hamas win will cement Israel's belief that there isn't a partner; the unilateral impulse will remain the driving force in Israeli politics. Richard Haass: Hamas did not campaign on the question of Israel. They won because they stood for change, and they weren't associated with corruption. My sense is we'd have several years of sorting out on the Palestinian side. Daniel Pipes: The Hamas victory will have the largest impact not in relations with Israel, where its goals and those of its predecessor Fatah resemble each other, but within the Palestinian Authority. Hamas will run a very different show from the anarchic, corrupt, sloppy dictatorship bequeathed by Arafat. Expect to see a far stricter, more religious, more disciplined order, with Fatah members, including Mahmoud Abbas, sidelined and probably repressed. Hamas represents the first Arab Islamist terrorist group to be legitimated through the ballot box. Comparable groups in Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco will watch and be encouraged, should there be any show of acceptance of Hamas by the U.S. and other governments.
2006-02-03 00:00:00
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