HOW HE SEES IT Hamas brings promise and challenges

By SAM BAHOUR
SPECIAL TO THE VINDICATOR
Welcome to the third Palestinian intefadah. The first was with stones, the second a mix of nonviolent and more violent means, and this one via the ballot box.
There are three ironies.
The first is that the Palestinians practiced a form of democracy under occupation -- possibly the first in world history. In a nutshell, Palestinians simply voted for their reality: a reality of a failed peace process, a road map that led into a Separation Wall, and a corrupt government that remained propped up by those same funds that are now being threatened to be cut off.
Second, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas led Fatah, Yasser Arafat's party, to defeat by steamrollering Palestinians. Whether this was an intended outcome or a byproduct of a plan to bring Hamas into the political framework and break the historic monopoly Fatah has come to enjoy is yet to be learned. Regardless, the process is a healthy one.
The third irony of the times is that Israel's strategy of "unilateral disengagement" from Gaza failed and thus contributed to bringing Hamas to power. To disengage settlements from Gaza and leave the occupation fully engaged was a strategy that even Hamas would have had a hard time designing as part of their election's campaign.
Potential for failure
The future holds three potential failures.
The first would be in underestimating Hamas' pragmatism and ability to change.
The second potential failure would be to overestimate Fatah's ability to glue itself back together after this elections defeat. Just as Hamas today is not the Hamas of last week, the same applies to Fatah, but only in clearer terms. If Fatah is not able to implement succession of government, there could bring a short-term catastrophe.
Third, it would be a failure to ignore that 39 years of Israeli military occupation and dispossession of Palestinians 58 years ago remain the sources of this conflict. It is imperative to remove the source of contention, and then hold Palestinians to international standards of governance. Until then, we will only be writing a chapter of history instead of the last chapter of a conflict.
Finally, there are three challenges.
The first challenge is that of time. Hamas must be given time to change , to create a government, assume power and state its positions.
The second challenge is that of Israeli unilateralism. It is time for Israel to see that unilateralism is part of why Hamas won. By taking actions outside of any negotiated process, Israel undermined the most moderate Palestinian leadership ever. Israel must realize that negotiations with an enemy are the only negotiations that end conflicts.
The third challenge is the creation of alternative political paths within the Palestinian (and Israeli) society. As Palestinians we should not take Hamas' coming to power lightly. Secular Palestinians need to get up and get to work. Resisting occupation and state-building are not spectator sports.
The days ahead will require political wisdom from Washington, not political evangelism.
X Sam Bahour is from Youngstown. He is Palestinian-American businessman living in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian city of El-Bireh. He is co-author of HOMELAND: Oral Histories of Palestine and Palestinians (1994) and can be reached at sbahour@palnet.com.