hamas and the taliban

one way to get ahold of the electoral victory of hamas would be to compare it to the rise of the taliban in afghanistan, though obviously the situations are extremely different. but the taliban seemed to make sense because of the extremely corrupt and amoral rule of warlords, which in turn seemed the only alternative to actual foreign occupation. the moral surety and fierce independence of the religious party can be extremely attractive under such circumstances. in palestine we have the deeply ineffectual and corrupt fatah movement, unable to transform the basic situation of repression. i don't know how much of a factor it was, but the bush admin's financial support for fatah was idiotic: a backlash was the only rational response: there could have been no more compelling way to discredit fatah.