Anyone who thinks that Hamas is going to moderate by joining the Palestinian government is living in a state of denial. One need only look at their fellow terrorists in Lebanon, Hezbollah to see what Hamas aspires to. I have not noticed Hexbollah looking to disarm.

Whatever little hope existed for reaching any kind of agreement between Israel and the Palestinians will be extinguished by the electoral rise of Hamas.

Paul - you ignorant piece of dung yourself. Anything that does not support the Israeli view point IS NOT anti-semitic, you fool. There are several members of the IDF that are terrorists, whether you choose to agree or not. Reporting the complete story from all sides is not "anti-semitism" -- sick of you'll who constantly play THAT card!

Don't the Oslo agreements -- the legal foundation of the Palestinian Authority's very existence -- prohibit terrorist groups from becoming part of the PLC? And what of the Road Map? Are the Palestinians not obligated to disarm "armed groups" such as Hamas (which has stated it will not disarm)? Is the world media even bringing up these issues?

Paul - now, now!! comments like that only further prove that you have nothing valid to say -- SO SHUT UP and stop embarrasing yourself.

What concerns me is what happens with the Fatah officials which get removed from power under an election? In America, defeated officials become lobbyists, practice law, etc. Now, you could have the worst of both worlds whereby one set of terrorists gains real power, and ex-Government officals become yet another set of terrorists since they have nothing else to do after leaving office.

I think that is is obvious that the more votes Hamas gets the worse the prospects are for any kind of peaceful resolution. Once again the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity

I just read Olmert's plan in Ha'artz. There will be no peace agreement based on his plan. The "Roadmap" was and is designed to prevent a peace agreement. It says the Palestinians have to surrender before there is a peace agreement. Any peace talks should be without preconditions.
I do not believe the Bush Administration or the Israeli government is serious about a peace agreement.The Neoconservatives want the whole thing for Israel. Olmert will set aside some small areas in the West Bank for the Palestinians.
So there will be no peace, and it will be total war between various Palestinian groups and Sharon's political heirs.

Were Paul's comments pulled? Was there something offensive in them besides idealogy? Oh well...

Hamas is moderating, note the fact that they took out the destruction of Israel stuff out of thier platform. I dont see the analogy to Hezb either. They have also certianly moderated too. So they havent given up thier weapons, so what. Has Isr given up its weapons??? And who are Americans to talk of moderating...invaded any soverign countries in undeclared, unconstitutional wars lately?

If you believe in Democracy then Hamas coming to the fore is a good things as it clearly reflects the mood of the people. And really the people of the Middle East are pretty ticked off.

I dont know if Zogby would ask this question but I wonder if given a choice of voting for your favorite American sponsored tyrant or say USB most Egyptians, for example , would choose USB. Its the world we have formed with our unenlightened policies.

Paul's comments were pulled because of offensive language, not ideology. There is no ideological filter here.

I have read here and elsewhere that Hamas (like most organizations) serves multiple purposes, many of them in social support.

Just as Republicans and Democrats have fringes, so does Hamas.

I would be delusional to think that a group so respected by it's constituents that it obtains 40% or more of legitimate votes could be ignored by "traditional" politicians, regardless if they be Palestinean, Israeli, or Washingtonian..

We (Americans) say "use the ballot box." It's time that happen (rather than ditching in a "signing opinion.")

Although I do not favor the call for the destruction of Israel, I do favor the inclusion of Hamas in the electoral process in Palestine.

It always strikes me as odd that Zionist parties who by any sense of the word radical are allowed to put forth their platform for an even greater Israel but Muslim 'radicals' are not allowed to offer a contrasting radical view.

Once again the Western media, governments, and citizens fail to understand the core issue involved for Muslims around the world - Israeli occupation of perceived Muslim lands.

Of course violence perpetrated by Hamas is intolerable, but I ask my Western compatriots, "What would you do if your land was occupied by foreign invaders? Sit by and watch?"

My guess is resort to violence.

What? You don't like true democracy? Were you under the illusion that democracy means "do as uncle Sam tells you". Well having freedom means that you are also free to hate whomever you want and decide for yourself. World Democracy will be the end of you as it is full of people that doesn't like you or Isreal. Hail for true Democracy. "Elect Fatah or we spank you" is not democracy but blunt Imperialism.

" Were you under the illusion that democracy means "do as uncle Sam tells you"."

If Uncle Sam told you not to shoot yourself in the foot, would you do so to spite him? I suppose that you would. The squalor, corruption, and violence the average Palestinian lives in sure shows us!

"World Democracy will be the end of you as it is full of people that doesn't like you or Isreal"

So long as your ideology is primarily based on adolescent revenge fantasies, I don't think the rest of us have much to fear.

"I don't think the rest of us have much to fear".

For your lives yes but your lives were never the prime target no matter how the "politicans" spin it. The prime goal was always irrevalance or in a more explicit way "do stuff we want no matter what you want". And we are getting there just look at Iran.

"The prime goal was always irrevalance or in a more explicit way "do stuff we want no matter what you want"."

Oh goodness!

"Irrevalance" [sic] suits me just fine sir.

I anxiously await a Hamas mediated solution to the nuclear confrontation between Iran and Israel. I also fully acknowledge that the Palestinian state will be shielded (primarily by its own sense of self-righteous martyrdom,) from any ensuing fallout.

And when the nuclear exchange between Israel and Iran is through, such Palestinians that survived the radiation sickness can have a hearty chuckle at the US' "irrevalance".

As I mentioned before, "adolescent revenge fantasies..." I guess I should add "poorly thought out," to the beginning of that phrase.

Hamas has a real problem on their hands now. They have to govern. As our own Republicans are currently learning, it is very easy to be an opposition party but very hard to govern. I'll predict Hamas gets stuck in its ways and will be prepared to use governing powers to martyr any Palestinian life. That's when the people will turn against it in the next election, if they let one happen.

So it looks like Iran is winning the Middle East Cold War. Hamas will get lots of money from Iran, as it already does, and be beholden to them. Israel now has an Iranian ally next to it. But you have to give Bush the credit for bringing democracy to the Middle East! Another Bush victory. Hmmm, is that an oxymoron?

Oh goodness!

"Irrevalance" [sic] suits me just fine sir.

Me too. Then why do you go around invading, medling into other people business and generally causing trouble. Stop supporting Isreal,get you troops home and start being irrelevent.

Anyone catch Sen. "Boy George" Allen (R-Va.) on Imus this morning? It's funny that Mary "Molebrain" Matalin calls him the front-runner -- do they always look for dim bulbs named George.

Related to Hamas, it reminded me that virtually all U.S. Senators and Congressmen get their Mideast Policy from AIPAC.

"Hi! I'm an Israeli puppet! Vote for me! Or at least, pay for my mind-numbing ads to feed a gullible and brainwashed public!"

Is it Friday yet.

Why are we surprised with the results? Given our government's popularity with the rest of the world, once it became public knowledge that we were funneling money into Fatah's coffers, there really wasn't another possible outcome.

Just a sample of the Hamas Charter:

The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said: 'The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him...'
Resisting and quelling the enemy become the individual duty of every Muslim, male or female. A woman can go out to fight the enemy without her husband's permission, and so does the slave: without his master's permission...

There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors. The Palestinian people know better than to consent to having their future, rights and fate toyed with...

The day The Palestinian Liberation Organization adopts Islam as its way of life, we will become its soldiers, and fuel for its fire that will burn the enemies...

I ask you -- is this what America would like to promote in terms of democracy and state leadership? BUSH IS AN IDIOT.

Time for Condi's Charm Offensive to get cracking again! It appears she's doing the work of the whole diplomatic corps; she'll have quite quite a job ahead:
(a) Democratizing Hamas;
(b) Coaxing Comrade Vladimir into stopping the strangulation of Ukraine and Georgia;
(d) Getting everyone to bring down the oil price;
(e) Haranguing Iran daily;
(f) Addressing the radical slide of Latin America. We seem to be doing nothing there while all assets are tied up in the Near East, the Middle East and Central and South Asia.
(g) So that he'll have two, arranging for Karen Hughes to knit a new sweater for Evo Morales.

Freedom Fighter,

Is it truly the case that you'd prefer a Middle East dominated by the likes of the Iranian clerics or Hamas? Do you really want to live in a world where women have to dress like Halloween characters? Do you really want to live in a world where your ideas are censored both formally and informally--so much so, in fact, that scientific and technological innovation is almost dead in the Islamic world (which, at one time, had a wonderful learning tradition)? America certainly has its problems, but I think I'll take those problems over your Islamic world.

Anyone think that the policy decisions of the current Israeli government toward the Palestinian state has improved prospects for peace in the Middle East?

Hamas elected in fair elections, Bush appointed as dictator

The Hamas administration of Palestine, reacting uneasily to Bush's victory in the American judicial elections, acknowledges that the challenge of dealing with the election of militants with violent tendencies in Western countries is to make sure they do not hijack their countries once they get in office.

Hamas has been trying to step away from its image in the West as a violent, theocratic movement opposed to compromise. In September, Mohammed Ghazal, a senior Hamas representative from Nablus, told Reuters, "The charter is not the Koran."

"It wouldn't be so terrible if Hamas got into power," said Col. Yochanan Tzoreff, former Arab Affairs advisor to I.D.F. Civil Administration in Gaza. Hamas could accomplish something once in government."

"They will have to deal with us, just as we will have to deal with them," said Brig. Gen. Uzi Ben-Itzhak, a former Central Command chief of staff. "We have to stop thinking that we can decide for the Palestinians who their leaders will be."

Fateh were corrupt, unreliable and ineffective on levels of Government and, as such, it is little wonder that Hamas swept into power. Now that they are there, however, and in order to be taken seriously they will have - and I believe they will - moderate their stance vis a vis the destruction of Israel. What the result really means is that Israel and America will have to deal with a Palestinian leadership that is not in their pockets and that will demand to be treated as an equal, an entirely new concept for both players.

The 'roadmap' was a map that led absolutely nowhere, a sham to try and keep the Palestine quiet (which didn't work) but no real peace plan. Now we will either see a positive real equitable solution to the problem with a real target for peace or, and I sincerely hope not, a raging war. It remains to be seen how all sides now react.

America wants a democratic Middle East, well here it is and, frankly, if real elections were held all over the Middle East you would probably see very similar results. The masses are tired of the corrupt leaders that think only of their seats and maintaining a lavish lifestyle, bowing to every demand of the West (US in most cases, although the French and English still have their fingers in many of the pies) at their expense. They want more and the only parties that are offering any alternative - at this stage - are Islamic based parties. Over time this may change, but today this is the reality, we are - at least those of us that are trying - still fledgling democracies, we need time.

Do you want that Palestine will be free?
If your answer is yes, I recommend you the following home page:
http://www.alah.hu