There's been a lot of spin today from people claiming this is actually a GOOD thing because now Hamas is a government agent and force can be brought to bear on the Palestinians with more legitimacy if terrorist attacks continue to occur in Israel.
Frankly, I think this is a weak argument. This is a horrible thing for Hamas to be in power, and it doesn't give Israel any greater "legitimacy" in retaliation than it did before - and the reason is this: Most of the world will continue to blame Israel and hold Israel as the villain, even if a Hamas-run government is found to be outfitting kids wish bomb vests and sending them into Tel Aviv. Either way, Israel will be punished. What's worse is the potentially unifying legitimacy Hamas will have in the eyes of the Palestinian people. Everyone among the Palestinians agree that Israel must be destroyed. Any rifts between Fatah and Hamas are EASILY trumped by that common goal. It's one thing for a terrorist outfit to blow the bugle as a call to arms of the Palestinian people. It's another thing when that terrorist group is your freely elected government, which goes a long way to manifesting an identity for the Palestinian street.
The greater risk, in my opinion, is that Hamas will become Iran't proxy in Gaza as Hezbollah is in Lebanon. Further, I fear the radicalization of the Palestinian street beyond the usual rabble of rock-throwers - a kind of patriotism that concedes that despite Hamas' penchant for blowing up fellow Palestinians, heck, it worked. They're in power. Let's do the same.
Thanks for your thoughtful comments.
It remains to be seen how corrupt/gullible the world and the Israeli left is and whether this results in a turning back of the clock.
Since 1957 the world at large recognized that the PLO and Fatah were terrorist organizations without legitimacy. In 1974 this began to change with Arafat's appearance at the UN, his English statements on Israel's right to exist and his courting of world public opinion. His was a consummate PR coup with an oil hungry world anxious for appeasement.
This fake legitimacy reached its pinnacle and began to fall after 2003, the second Intifadah, the Karine A exposure and the subsequent pariah treatment by Pres Bush and PM Sharon exposing Arafat for the corrupt terrorist he always was. The Palistinian cause has not recovered even after Arafat's death.
"The greater risk, in my opinion, is that Hamas will become Iran't proxy in Gaza as Hezbollah is in Lebanon. Further, I fear the radicalization of the Palestinian street beyond the usual rabble of rock-throwers - a kind of patriotism that concedes that despite Hamas' penchant for blowing up fellow Palestinians, heck, it worked. They're in power. Let's do the same."
You have hit on the other important variable -- whether Hamas brings increased ties with Iran/Hezbollah and Al Qaeda as I believe they will. What appears to be happening right now is that the lines are becoming clearer which was part of Pres Bush's plan ("with us or against us"). Even France has come out with a strong threat to Iran and a tough stance on Syrian interference in Lebanon. So this radicalization has a value.
The election blew away the sham peace negotiations that were causing Israel to be prodded mercilessly into giving up "land for peace." Now, Hamas doesn't want to negotiate, and the road map is dead. The more I think about this, if they don't want to negotiate, and their charter which they promise not to denounce is built on destroying Israel, this could be construed as an ipso facto declaration of open hostilities -- war.