In Middle East, democracy becomes fundamental(ist)

Sometimes, democracy isn't all it's cracked up to be.
The Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank have a new parliamentary majority, elected by a landslide margin. And prospects for peace between Palestinians and Israelis have been set back by years, if not decades.
The new parliament is controlled by Hamas -- whose name means zeal and is an Arabic acronym for the Islamic Resistance Movement. So while the Palestine Liberation Organization's Mahmoud Abbas remains the Palestinian Authority's president, the parliament has been taken over by Islamic fundamentalists whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel and whose leaders refuse to renounce terrorism.
Charity and power
Hamas, which gets credit for supporting medical clinics and schools that the Fatah Party, once overseen by Yasser Arafat, was too lazy, corrupt or incompetent to operate, obviously struck a responsive chord with the Palestinian electorate. But while Hamas earned some votes through its good works, it bought others with the stipends it pays to families who have fathers and sons in Israeli jails -- or to the families left behind by suicide bombers.
The last thing Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon did to jump-start peace talks was forcibly remove Israeli settlers from Gaza. Now Sharon lies incapacitated by a stroke, and Hamas stands in a position of power, with many of its followers crediting Hamas terrorist tactics, not Sharon's pragmatism, with the Gaza pull-out.
Abbas says he is committed to pursuing the Bush administration's "road map to peace" and stands ready to negotiate with Israel. And senior Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar suggested to reporters that talks might be held through a third party. But both President Bush and acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert say they will not negotiate with a terrorist organization. The Hamas covenant calls for holy war against Israel or any enemy that "usurps Islamic lands." Even the European Union classifies Hamas as a terrorist entity.
There are enormous impediments to peace under the best of circumstances. The wall Israel built as a protection against infiltration by terrorists has become a symbolic barrier to peace in the eyes of many Palestinians. Long-standing disagreements over Israeli settlements in the Palestinian territories, conflicting claims on Jerusalem and the claimed right of Palestinians to return to Israel remain very real barriers to peace.
Extremist view
Hamas, with its pledge to create a Palestinian nation on land that now includes Israel, is the Islamic equivalent of Jews who want to destroy the Temple Mount and establish a greater Israel that would encompass the entire West Bank.
Establishing any meaningful basis for negotiations with this new democratically elected Islamic government is not going to be easy or quick. The Washington Post reported that just days before the election, administration officials were hoping Hamas would get as little as 20 percent of the vote and were bracing for the possibility of it getting 30 or 40 percent. Hamas got 60 percent of the vote and took 76 seats in the 132-seat parliament .
The gap that must be bridged between the administration's pre-election perceptions and the post-election reality is enormous.