The Boston Review has a long article by Helena Cobban titled Hamas’s Next Steps in which she interviews the new Palestinian Prime Minister and the Foreign Minister on what their plans are now that they are in power.

Coggan touches on the reluctance of Fateh to accept Hamas’s victory, the difficulties in ruling the West Bank given Israeli travel restrictions, and the refusal to recognise Israel:

Dr. Mahmoud Ramahi, Hamas’s chief whip in the PLC, made a similar statement when I interviewed him a few days earlier in the PLC’s main seat in Ramallah:

“We have said clearly that Israel is a state that exists and is recognized by many countries in the world. But the side that needs recognition is Palestine! And the Israelis should recognize our right to have our state in all the land occupied in 1967. After that it should be easy to reach agreement. They ask us to recognize Israel without telling us what borders they’re talking about! First let us discuss borders, and then we will discuss recognition.”,1),
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Haniyeh made clear in our short interview that his government would be putting domestic rather than international affairs at the top of its agenda. “We are confident we can succeed in this new challenge of organizing the Palestinian house,” he said. “Our people want internal security now.”

She also touches on Hamas’s relationship with the Arab League, and how the League will be encouraging Hamas to adopt their line on conditional recognition of Israel, their plans to buildup economic ties independent of Israel and their views on the rights of women.

What are the prospects for Palestinian women, Christians, and secular Muslims if Hamas extends its power? Hamas is different from al Qaeda and the Taliban in many important ways—just as Palestinian society is very different from those of the rugged, underdeveloped areas of Afghanistan and Waziristan that spawned and incubated the two other movements. To understand this, it helps to meet a woman like Jamila Shanty, a longtime professor at the Gaza Islamic University and one of six Hamas women elected to the PLC in January.

Shanty clearly relishes her new role in the parliament, where, she told me, she hoped to sit on the political and legal-affairs committees. She said she was inspired mainly by the Hamas founder Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. “Sheikh Yassin always paid such a lot of attention to women’s affairs.” she said. “He made sure the mosques all provided enough space for the women to pray in, and that they offered lectures and other activities for women. He told us that the work we do in our homes is important because it has real political value. But he also strongly encouraged women to become engaged in causes outside the home. Whenever he visited a mosque he would make sure to have a meeting with the women there, and he would urge all the women to finish their education and contribute what they could to society. He was an example not just to Palestinians but all Muslims.”

It’s a very interesting read, especially since the usual crap you read in other newspapers just parrots the “Hamas are terrorists” line without providing any background or making any effort to educate readers about the ins and outs of Palestinian politics. While there’s no doubt that Hamas does have a military wing known for attacks on Israel, it’s also a fact that the Al-Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade, no slouches themselves on the suicide-bombings front, was an integral part of Fateh, the party which held power in Palestine for twelve years prior to Hamas’s victory. Foreign aid still flowed in to Palestine while they were in charge, so why is there suddenly all this talk of cutting off the flow now that Hamas are in their place, especially since Hamas decided to unilaterally enforce a ceasefire in 2005, which they have stuck to? It would seem that now is the good time to engage with the official representatives of the Palestinian people, who, let’s not forget, were democratically elected, not to shun them.