Terrorist group Hamas last week won a landslide victory in the Palestinian parliamentary elections and will soon take over the reins of power legitimately. That Palestinians chose a radical guerrilla movement to form their next government shows their true colours - they have in their recent history trodden along the path of violence and the election results indicate that they will stay the course.

Hamas, the enfant terrible of the intifada has come a long way in the short time since its formation in 1987 on the back of the first Palestinian uprising. Its underground militant wing Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades has been responsible for scores of suicide bombings and terror attacks on Israeli civilians.

At the elections, Palestine's electorate emphatically threw its weight behind the political wing of Hamas allowing it to trounce Fatah, the faction once controlled by the late PLO chairman Yasser Arafat and dominating the outgoing Palestinian Authority.

Ideologically, however, where concerns use of violence, there seems to be little difference between the popular Hamas and the corrupt Fatah.