The Middle East awoke this morning to face a new reality — the birth of a militant Islamic movement as a major force in Palestinian politics.

Hamas, the Islamic Resistance Movement for decades sidelined to the radical fringe, appears to have earned a majority of the popular vote among Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank and Arab east Jerusalem.

Reports this morning suggest that it has won a clear majority of parliamentary seats, forcing the resignation of Ahmed Qureia, the Palestinian Prime Minister, and his Cabinet.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President, has now asked Hamas to form the next government, marking the first time in the history of the Arab world that an elected Islamic party will form a government.

Hamas's success comes directly at the expense of Fatah, for four decades the dominant political party in the ruling Palestinian Liberation Organisation. It is too early to predict how the seismic shift will manifest itself on the new landscape of the Middle East, but it is clear that the era of one-party Palestinian politics, embodied by the late Yassir Arafat, is over.

Yesterday Hamas leaders insisted that they had no intention of abandoning their military campaign, in particular the use of suicide bombers whose devastating attacks have left hundreds of Israeli civilians dead. Nor are they willing to reconsider the wording of the movement’s covenant, which calls for the destruction of Israel and the creation of an Islamic state in the Holy Land.

While no one is expecting the movement to convert overnight, it is hard to imagine a sophisticated organisation such as Hamas not changing its position once it has tasted power from the ballot box.

The Hamas leader, Ismail Haniya, said today that the organisation's priority was to enter talks for a "political partnership" with Fatah. But if those talks founder, Hamas can rule by itself. Will its leaders be able to wage a campaign of violence while taking on the responsibilities of public office, which in practical terms means dealing with Israel and the international community?

Much of what happens next will depend on the response of non-Palestinians, particularly the Israelis, the Americans, the Europeans and the Arab world, to the results. Israel's acting Prime Minister, Ohud Elmert, is convening an emergency meeting of his security ministers to discuss the implications of the Palestinian election result.

Palestine is still not a country and running the Palestinian Authority requires daily co-operation with Israel and the international community to provide basic services to the Palestinian people, like education, the import and export of goods, supply of electricity, travel and health care.

In practical terms, a Hamas government will have to co-operate with outsiders if it hopes to deliver the election promises it made for improved services and an end to the corrupt practices of Fatah.

Few beyond Palestinian borders will be pleased with Hamas’s electoral gains, but at least the reality of Palestinian opinion is undeniable. Some have engaged in private contacts with Hamas officials in anticipation of having to deal with the movement out in the open, as happened with the PLO in the 1980s and 1990s. In the longer term, what happened yesterday could be an opportunity.

Certainly, Islamic Jihad, for years Hamas's extremist stablemate is now isolated as the only party not involved in the mainstream political process.

What happened to the Palestinians yesterday is part of a broader trend across the Middle East. In Lebanon, Egypt and Iraq, radical groups have been drawn into mainstream politics through the democratic process. Political Islam, once the preserve of fanatics, could be on the verge of becoming mainstream, perhaps one day even respectable.

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