Hamas Victory Rattles Arab World

Sat Jan 28, 4:14 PM ET

CAIRO, Egypt - For some Arabs, the Hamas victory in Palestinian parliamentary elections was a dream come true, but for others it was a nightmare.

Certainly, the militant Islamic group's overwhelming win was nearly as stunning for Arabs as it was for Israel and its backers.

Official Arab reaction was muted initially as leaders in Mideast capitals digested the surprise result of Wednesday's vote.

But Arab media termed it an earthquake. Hamas, running for the first time, swept the governing Fatah party from power with the force of nature.

The Palestinian election commission said Saturday that the final vote count showed Hamas winning 74 of 132 seats in the Legislative Council while Fatah won 45.

Under its charter, Hamas seeks Israel's destruction. It has opposed Arab-Israeli peace talks, refused to disarm and has carried out dozens of suicide bombings against Israelis. The movement also advocates a conservative political and social program based on a strict interpretation of Islam.

In a celebratory news conference from his base in Damascus, Syria, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal obliquely pledged Saturday to continue attacking Israelis.

"Resistance is a legitimate right that we will practice and protect. Our presence in the legislature will strengthen the resistance," Mashaal said.

"If people raised the issue of targeting civilians, we said and we say that when our enemy stops targeting civilians, we will abide by that."

For its part, Israel has conducted numerous targeted assassinations of Hamas figures. Mashaal escaped an Israeli attempt on his life in 1997 while in Jordan.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, leader of the Arab world's most populous nation and the first to sign a peace treaty with Israel, has been silent since the election.

Mubarak has said he wanted the Palestinians to continue peace efforts with Israel. The Egyptians had hoped the Palestinian vote could be delayed, obviously expecting a strong Hamas showing - if not the overwhelming victory.

Jordan's King Abdullah II, whose country was the second to make peace with Israel, declared the need for continued peace talks.

"I hope the election results will boost unity and order the internal affairs in the territories," Abdullah said, stressing "the peace process should not stop."

Regardless of concerns among pro-Western Arab governments, Hamas does have avowed supporters in the region.

The strongest is Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood, which wants all regimes in the Arab world swept aside in favor of fundamentalist Islamic governments.

"This is a vote for the Islamic option to solve the Palestinian issue," Brotherhood leader Mohammed Mahdi Akef said.

In Egyptian parliamentary elections last year, candidates backed by the banned but tolerated Islamist group won a fifth of the seats and increased their presence in parliament about sixfold, making it the only serious opposition to the Mubarak government.

Iran, the non-Arab Middle Eastern nation and the staunchest opponent of peace with Israel, said Tehran "hopes that the powerful presence of Hamas on the scene" will strengthen resistance against the Jewish state.

Many Arab governments, however, may find it embarrassing to do business with a Hamas-dominated Palestinian Authority if the United States and other Western powers refuse to deal with the organization.

Washington and the European Union regard Hamas as a terrorist group and demand that it renounce violence and accept Israel's right to exist in return for official contacts.

Pro-Western governments such as those in Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia are concerned the Hamas victory could indefinitely postpone peacemaking and complicate creation of a Palestinian state.

Israel's acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said peace talks were not possible "with a Palestinian administration if even part of it is an armed terrorist organization calling for the destruction of the state of Israel."

Arab diplomats have said they cannot imagine a continuation of the generous aid from oil-rich Arab countries to the Palestinians if a Hamas-led government does not renounce violence or accept the Arab strategy for peace with Israel in return for land it has occupied since 1967.

While the aid might continue under the table, it certainly would not be passed along publicly for fear of angering Washington.

Samir Ghattas, head of the Cairo-based Al Quds Research Center, said Arab relations with the Palestinians will be strained if Hamas fails to moderate.

"It is something to be in the opposition and something quite different to be in the government." he told The Associated Press. "Like the PLO before, Hamas has to choose now between the gun or the olive branch. This might be the bitter poison it has to taste."

With peace talks stalled and Israeli elections just weeks away, many Arabs also fear Israelis will choose a hard-line government that will pursue unilateral action, drawing its own borders and separating itself from the Palestinians.

Other experts fear the victory will embolden Hamas to remake Palestinian life in line with its strict Islamic vision and embolden other Islamic groups in the region - a nightmare for countries such as Egypt and Jordan whose secular governments are facing growing challenges from groups like the Muslim Brotherhood.

With leaders of Fatah saying they will not join a national unity government with Hamas if the militant movement does not change its political program, many Arabs are concerned the rival groups may be headed toward confrontation.

Hamas said it will send a delegation next week to some Arab countries to try to alleviate their fears. But the group's leaders insist there will be no change in their positions.

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