From CSIS, dated 9 Feb 06: Palestinian Authority and Militant Forces
...A largely secular and pro-peace Palestinian government was suddenly and unexpectedly replaced by a radical Islamist group whose charter still effectively called for Israel's destruction. Some leaders in Gaza and the West Bank did indicate that they would consider a mutual ceasefire. However, Hamas's formal leader, Khaled Meshal, who was based in Damascus, stated that Hamas would not abandon its struggle with Israel and would transform its armed wing into a national Palestinian army.

The political and military map of both the future of the Palestinian's future and the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, is now uncertain and may well remain so for years. It may also lead to a major redefinition of how Palestinian forces are shaped and defined. There is no inherent dilemma in labeling a resistance movement as either "freedom fighters" or "terrorists." History has consistently shown that activists can be both at the same time, and that democratic forces can be as ruthless in using terrorist and asymmetric means as authoritarian ones. History provides equal warnings that there is no way to predict how much given movements like Hamas and the PIJ will or will not moderate over time, or whether they will become more extreme and violent.

There is no doubt, however, that Hamas's victory is a further catalyst in a fundamental change in the Arab-Israeli military balance. For years, there has been the steady shift away from a focus on conventional warfighting between Israel and Egypt, Jordan, and Syria, to a focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This conflict has helped drive Israel's neighbors to maintain large conventional forces as a deterrent, but it has also increased their internal security problems. At the same time, it has interacted with the rise of Neo-Salafi Islamist terrorism and efforts to dominate the Islamic world. Like the interaction between Hezbollah, Syria, and Iran; the shifts in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict have become regional as well as internal. At the same time, the Palestinians have been driven primarily by local tensions and dynamics. They have never been anyone's proxies; they use as much as they are used...