Dubai: Shortly after the preliminary results of the Palestinian parliamentary elections started showing that Hamas was gaining the majority of seats, reactions from different parts of the world began pouring in.
While Israel warned of not recognising any government Hamas is taking part in, asking the Europeans not to deal with a "terror government", the reactions of many other countries carried a more cautious tone, calling on the Palestinian group to take a more peaceful stand.
"The issue of the talks is not on the agenda of Hamas," Hamas spokesperson Musheir Al Masri, who was among the winning candidates of the group, said.
"Because it is an experience that the Palestinian arena witnessed throughout the past 10 years and failed to attain the minimum aspirations of the Palestinians," he told Gulf News in an interview from Gaza.
Al Masri called on the international community to "review its perspective and make it a fair one in the Palestinian-Zionism conflict. Hamas is open to the world", he said.
Meanwhile, Hamas's positions vis-a-vis the peace talks with Israel is one of the reasons behind the rejection of some of the Fatah members joining any government formed by Hamas. Among them is Saeb Erekat, the chief negotiator with Israel.
"It is only realistic to take this line," he told Gulf News, adding that Fatah will be working on "rebuilding the confidence of the people slowly but surely". However, many Palestinian analysts strongly believe that Hamas need to benefit from the political experience Fatah has.
"Fatah has a very long history in achievements and in great mistakes. But Hamas has no record in governmental institutional work," said Nader Al Saeed, sociology professor at Beir Zeit University in the West Bank.
"All Palestinians were expecting that the elections would hit Fatah, but it was not that strong," he added.
Head of the Jerusalem-based Palestinian Academic Society for the study of International Affairs Mahdi Abdul Hadi strongly believes this is part of a new era between the Palestinians and Israelis in the post-era of the late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat and the Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.
Prominent winners and losers
Victorious Esmail Haniyeh, a relative moderate in Hamas, leads the movement's list in the new parliament; Mohammad Abu Teir, second on the Hamas list, is known for his orange-tinted, bushy beard; Mohammad Dahlan, Gaza strongman under Yasser Arafat, resisted the Hamas wave in Gaza and won a seat from Khan Younis and Marwan Barghouti, the imprisoned Fatah uprising leader, will be a member of the new parliament, though Israel refuses to release him.
Defeated Jibril Rajoub, once Yasser Arafat's security chief in the West Bank, failed to win a seat in the Hebron district, where Hamas took all the places; Ahmad Qorei, the Palestinian prime minister, decided not to run for parliament at all, assuming he would be named prime minister again after the election; Kadoura Fares, a young Fatah leader close to Barghouti, was defeated in his re-election bid and Samir Mashharawi, Fatah leader in northern Gaza, was swept aside in a Hamas sweep in the district.
