Hamas was voted into Government, I believe that Hamas was a kind of Social organization,helping the poor . Fatah was Abu Mazen ,but there was talk about Arafat sending millions abroad perhaps to his wife ,the slogan being ''Fatah is corrrupt'' Ali Abu Shusha, 31,of the West Bank said at the time ."I want Hamas to run the government. It has clean hands, puts the poor before the rich and will resist the occupier." So that the feeling was for more than 40 years of political domination by Fatah,which is widely viewed by Palestinians as corrupt and ineffective.

At the time the leader of Hamas, Mahmoud Zahar, said proudly in Gaza: "We are going to change every aspect, as regards the economy, industry, agriculture, as regards social aid, health, administration, education." But it will not be an easy transformation, and it will provoke political resistance from a largely secular society.

Israelis warned the world not to give in to wishful thinking and presume that Hamas will suddenly alter its goals. Israel and the world did not negotiate with Mr. Arafat and the Palestine Liberation Organization until it agreed to recognize the state of Israel in the late 1980's and disavow terrorism. Israeli politicians suggested that the process would have to begin all over again with Hamas.

Ami Ayalon, a former director of Shin Bet now running for a seat with the Labor Party. ''The Palestinian Authority constructed by Fatah no longer exists," he said. "Palestinian society is very confused. When they chose Hamas, it is more because of the corruption and failure of the Palestinian Authority and Fatah than because of religion or terrorism. But they will have to pay the price for their decision."

A Hamas politician from Ramallah, Fadel Saleh, said, "We want honest government and an end to the occupation, and we will work so that every weapon in the hand of a Palestinian is a national weapon, directed against the occupation, not used for security chaos."

Daoud Kuttab, a Palestinian analyst, "After 40 years, it's almost natural. That the opposition came from a radical Islamic group is unfortunate, but there was no other serious opposition. Hisham Ahmed, a political scientist at Birzeit University who has written books about Hamas, called the vote "an historic moment in every sense." He said there were scores of reasons to explain the vote, "but the most important factor was not Fatah's split but the causes behind the split, the domination of Fatah by self-serving people who did not keep in touch with the people and ostracized the talented."