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Hamas Puts Mideast, and Self, at Crossroads

January 27, 2006
Prepared By: cfr.org editorial staff

The Islamic group ' stunning electoral victory prompted Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei and his entire cabinet to quit their posts and call for Hamas to form a new government. Now Hamas faces a dilemma: Will it continue the moderating trend that led it to take part in the elections in the first place, or fracture under the pressure of living up to internationally expected norms of governance?

Writing in Foreign Affairs, which offers a sneak peek of its next edition here, Israeli General Michael Herzog sees . But CFR Fellow Henry Siegman, speaking to cfr.org's Bernard Gwertzman, says .

David Makovsky of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy warns in Newsday that granting Hamas legitimacy before it commits to nonviolence would . The Wall Street Journal says the win gives Hamas a chance to show . One way or another, the regional and international implications of the results are enormous, as explained in this  by cfr.org's Esther Pan.

For Washington, the Hamas victory puts the Bush administration in an awkward place between its two biggest priorities: . President Bush defended his emphasis on democracy-building and reiterated that  Europe is likely to break with the United States and , as Jonathan Steele urges in the Guardian.

World leaders  as the Christian Science Monitor asks if . The Guardian says the Hamas victory, while full of risks, . Ben Fishman and Mohammad Yaghi of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy offer a brief on .

As for Fatah, the once unassailable ruling party and successor to the Palestine Liberation Organization, the result is a humiliation. President Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah's standard bearer, in now, in effect, in opposition. Fawaz Turki writes in Arab News that the party has been doomed for decades by . Arafat and Abbas also both failed to reform the Palestinian security forces, explained in this , which Haaretz calls  in the beleaguered PA.