You Get What You Vote For. What Does Hamas Get Us?

GAZA CITY

Here in Gaza, we are holding our breath, waiting to see what the unprecedented victory of Hamas in our legislative elections will mean for us. The territory is quiet. Even the militants have taken a break from launching rockets or occupying government buildings.

Ironically, the subdued atmosphere is a clear sign of the violent turmoil inside each and every Palestinian. But this unease is not focused on what attacks or retaliations might occur between Hamas and its avowed enemy, Israel. Instead, what I hear my neighbors and colleagues discussing is: How will Hamas govern without the support of international donors? Will I receive next month's paycheck?

It is easy to be cynical about these questions. After all, the Palestinians who voted for Hamas -- which remains dedicated to the destruction of Israel -- are collectively the same people who have told pollsters that, like the majority of Israelis, they want to end the Middle East conflict peacefully on the basis of a two-state solution.

So why did so many throw their support behind Hamas? In recent days I have asked this question of many friends and colleagues, and most of their answers had nothing to do with Israel.

Most common was the idea voiced by a woman named Ghada Rabee: "I elected Hamas to get back at the corrupt Palestinian Authority."

Educated as an English teacher, Rabee did not have the right connections to secure a job in the Palestinian Authority's school system, and all she has been able to find is volunteer work as a translator in my office. "The corrupt Fatah government did not give us good services or proper employment," Rabee says bitterly.

Rabee also expressed a sentiment I have heard, in different words, from many people: "I feel I belong to them" -- to Hamas -- "because they are as ordinary as we are." In contrast to the entrenched bureaucrats of Fatah, most Hamas candidates were teachers, civil servants and physicians.

A different point was made by Maysa Ahmed, 30, who has one son and works as a secretary in an educational institute. "The crime rate is skyrocketing," she said, referring to robberies and shootings. "It's unacceptable and it shows that the Fatah government was not able, or not willing, to impose law and order; obviously we had to seek a change."

Almost no one I speak with talks about Hamas's victory in terms of Israel.

Nevertheless, it is difficult not to think that Israel, with or without realizing it, helped Hamas win the election -- by undermining the existing government. A Palestinian police station I often walk past in Gaza City, partially destroyed by Israeli bombs, illustrates one part of my point: For a long time, Israeli forces responded to attacks by any Palestinian group -- Hamas, Islamic Jihad or Fatah -- by striking institutions of the Palestinian Authority. This made it even harder for the PA to deliver the security, public utilities and other services that the populations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank expected.