Say hello to the new Palestine

Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurei called it quits after the election. Why? Well....

Hamas claimed it had won at least 70 seats in the 132-member parliament, while EU election observer Richard Howitt told the BBC he had been informed that Hamas could have won up to 80 seats.

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Jerusalem says there is no doubt that the Hamas showing has transformed the Palestinian political arena.

For decades, Fatah - the party founded by the late Yasser Arafat - has totally dominated electoral politics, but that time is over, he says.

Hamas is also now a major power and it will enter parliament still committed to its armed confrontation with Israel, our correspondent adds.

This is bad. We now have a nation run by a terrorist group. No good can come of this. It looks like war in the middle east is unavoidable. The question is will we back up Israel when push comes to shove.

The people of Palestine chose this (assuming the election is not a fraud and thus far there is no evidence of this). The people want a terrorist run state, and if war breaks out they'll pay the price for it.

Hat tip to Captain Ed.

Jihad Watch has more: "As Hugh Fitzgerald pointed out yesterday, this was a choice between the slow jihad against Israel and the faster variety." More here: "

As usual, Michelle Malkin has an excellent round up. She quotes from Bush's speech to the nation: "The United States does not support political parties that want to destroy our ally, Israel...". Agreed, but it means things will get ugly. Just a question of when.