So Israel is back to square one with the Palestinians now that the terrorist group, Hamas, has been elected to govern the Palestinian people. Let’s be clear, Hamas is a group which does not recognise Israel’s right to exist and, as stated in the Hamas Covenant, seeks to destroy the state of Israel through violence.

Hamas’s victory has been described as both a landslide and a surprise (particularly by British news channels) but this is suitably debunked here.

Israel, and the US-led coalition against terrorism, is right not to deal with a group - whether in power or not - that seeks to destroy her very existence.

However, is it really all doom and gloom even in Israel? A cognitive egocentric may argue that…

There was a time when the PLO sought to destroy Israel, and carried out numerous terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians, but given a White House lawn and a parliament, the PLO changed into the PA (arguably some sections of Fatah never changed their old ways). This thinking, we can expect, will be most prevalent in Europe and reissued with Hamas as the subject: Maybe, once Hamas enters the political stage, it will become more moderate and pragmatic, reinterpreting its hard Islamic line to meet its new reality.

Clearly, allowing Hamas to govern with western funds will only encourage Hamas to continue business as usual. Withholding those funds, while dangling a carrot of recognition and funding in front of Hamas, may bring more moderate (excuse the BBC jargon) members to come to the fore. If there are no consequences to a current position, there is no reason to change that position.

However, only the most delusional believe that this can be achieved quickly and quietly, if at all. Hamas’s priority at the moment seems to be focused on building a Palestinian army. The fact that up to six Arab nations couldn’t defeat Israel back in Israel’s early days seems to be lost on Hamas.

Political naivity is, however, what you come to expect from a group that is nothing more than a gun-and-Koran ideology, garnering favour through charity work.

This doesn’t stop the liberal-leftist press, as gullible as ever, swallowing Hamas, and Arabist, rhetoric. “The army is for Palestinian security so that they can feel safe at night,” they report on BBC News. Interesting use of an army is nighttime law inforcement…

On the other side of the coin, the Jihadist side, is Hamas really naive or do they have a completely different perspective which has yet to register on the minds of European cognitive egocentrics?

There is a belief that Israel’s withdrawal, seen in Europe as a pragmatic step towards peace, is, in Arab society, perceived to be a sign of defeat and weakness. Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon in 2000 was caused by the high death rate of Israeli soldiers, goes the narrative. Likewise, Hamas campaigned hard on the grounds that Israel’s withdrawal from Gaza last year was the result of Hamas terror, not Fatah corruption and complacent collaboration with Israel.

Moreover, both Syria and Iran have missiles that can reach anywhere in Israel. Could this be Hamas’s real interest in building a Palestinian army? Is a war brewing?

If this is the true belief of Hamas, we’re looking at a War Process over the coming months and years, especially if Iran is allowed to fall through the net at the economic whims of the Russians and Chinese.

And those who say the Hamas victory should be respected are merely stating a half-point probably in an attempt to avoid the real issues. Whether the Palestinian elections are respected or not, it’s the financing of an unrelenting terrorist group - elected or not - that should not be respected. Why would NATO members go after terrorists in Afghanistan, prepare to use force to stop Iran building the bomb, and then finance a terrorist group that aligns itself with such terrorist groups? Such a contradiction would make a laughing stock of the west.

I can hear Looney-Bin Laden’s next Al Jazeera broadcast now: “From Palestine to Pakistan, the Jihadists will take over…democratically! Muhahahaha!”

Hmm, and they call that progress.