HAMAS WINS...OUTRIGHT!

FORGET ABOUT YESTERDAY'S PROJECTIONS. FATAH WON'T HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT WHETHER TO INCLUDE HAMAS IN A COALITION GOVERNMENT. HAMAS HAS WON THE ELECTION OUTRIGHT. THAT MEANS FATAH HAS NO POWER.

Hamas wins; ministers resign (YNET)
Hamas shocker: Hamas is assured of winning at least 70 and as many as 80 of 132 parliament seats and beating out Fatah in the Palestinian Authority elections, sources at the PA Central Elections Committee say.

Hamas' top candidate, Ismail Haniya, is expected to convene a press conference Thursday and announce the group's elections victory. Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia announced he was resigning his post [ED. FOR THE 12TH TIME, FOR THE 15TH DIFFERENT REASON] in wake of Hamas' stunning defeat and said the Islamic group now has to form a government. ...

Fatah sources said they are concerned Hamas will thwart agreements with Israel should the group form the next government, therefore forcing PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to resign. Meanwhile, the sources said the Palestinian Authority will now be facing a dead-end, with uncertainly over Abbas' ability to negotiate agreements and pass laws. However, the sources also noted the PA chairman is allowed, by law, to disperse the parliament.

A senior Hamas official said Thursday recognizing Israel and talks with the Jewish state are "not on our agenda." "Negotiations with Israel are not on our agenda," said Mushir al-Masri, who won the election in his home district in the northern Gaza Strip. "Recognizing Israel is not on the agenda either now," he said. Meanwhile, despite its pledge to cooperate with all Palestinian factions, however, Hamas stressed the group has no intention to disarm, with al-Zahar reiterating Hamas does not plan to "change even one word" in its charter, which calls for Israel's destruction.

IT DIDN'T TAKE THE U.S. LONG TO LOWER THE BAR. IT APPEARS HAMAS DOES NOT NEED TO DISARM OR CEASE TERROR IN ORDER FOR THE U.S. TO VIEW IT AS A LEGITIMATE PEACE PARTNER. IT MUST ONLY CEASE CALLING FOR ISRAEL'S DESTRUCTION.

Bush: Hamas must renounce stand
WASHINGTON - President Bush on Thursday did not rule out dealing with Hamas, which won the Palestinian parliamentary elections, but said the militant Islamic group would have to renounce its call for Israel's destruction. “Peace is never dead,” Bush said at a news conference when asked if he ruled out ever dealing with Hamas. But he added that “if your platform is the destruction of Israel, it means you’re not a partner in peace, and we’re interested in peace.”

Asked in a follow-up question if he was ruling out dealing with a Palestinian government that was made up partly of Hamas, he replied: “They don’t have a government yet, so you’re asking me to speculate on what the government will look like. I have made it very clear however that a political party that articulates the destruction of Israel as part of a platform is a party with which we will not deal.”

Don't Deal with Terrorists - Daniel Pipes
An increasing number of voices are calling for Hamas to be recognized, arguing that the imperatives of governance would tame it. The historical record, however, refutes this "pothole theory of democracy." Mussolini made the trains run, Hitler built autobahns, Stalin cleared the snow, and Castro reduced infant mortality - without any of these totalitarians giving up their ideological zeal nor their grandiose ambitions. Like al-Qaeda, Hamas should be destroyed, not legitimated, much less courted. (USA Today)