Haaretz on the Hamas election

Forget what Bush says about the election that Hamas just won in Palestine. Bushg is watching from the sidelines just like everyone else in the world outside Israel and Palestine.

The key to the way the world will react is going to be how Israel reacts. So says Nazir Majali in the English on-line version of Haaretz. The problem is that the Israelis, like everyone else including the members of Hamas, are still stunned and don't know how they are going to react.

It is worthwhile to examine, for example, who established Hamas and who encouraged it, and why those who did this have not been called to account for it. And it is worthwhile to ask whether the strategy of "getting rid of (Yasser) Arafat" was correct and did not make a crucial contribution to the situation today.

[Boldfacing mine] This refers to the fact that Hamas was created and supported by Israelis as a counterweight to Arrafat's al Fatah.

This could be a good situation and it could be bad. There are as yet no real indicators that suggest what will happen next.