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Some Palestinians See End of Secular Dream
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Hanna Siniora has seen this process before.
A longtime member of the PLO's congress, known as the Palestine National Council, Siniora worked two decades ago to help the group win international recognition. It was an arduous process that eventually required the PLO to renounce violence, something now being demanded of Hamas.
"History repeats itself," said Siniora. "This may be a blessing in disguise."
But as Siniora smoked a water pipe, he expressed certainty that his secular nationalist cause would change, too. Hamas is not a member of the PLO, which manages peace policy with Israel, but talks are underway to bring it into the organization.
In the past, negotiations to determine Hamas's representation in the PLO congress relied on polls that showed the Islamic movement with public support of 25 to 30 percent. The election results have strengthened the group's hand enormously in the negotiations, which will probably also require Hamas to change its commitment to a future Palestinian state across territory that now includes Israel.
In the hall outside Batarseh's office suite in Bethlehem, Arafat waves from a nearly life-size photograph. He is smiling, head draped in the familiar black-and-white kaffiyeh, the Palestinian flag behind him.
But Arafat is in a tomb in Ramallah, and inside the mayor's waiting room sit two smiling council members from Hamas, sipping tea and celebrating the results.
"Hamas has been using its brains here," Batarseh said. "It's very, very simple. For 10 years, the Palestinian Authority did nothing."
