Amidst fears for the future of the Middle East peace process, the foreign ministers of the United States, European Union, Russia and the General Secretary of the United Nations are trying to remain as optimistic as possible about an election result in the Palestinian Authority that most are judging as dismal.

The so-called Mideast Quartet will meet this Monday in London to discuss the election of Hamas in Ramallah and its consequences for the "Roadmap" to peace in the Mideast.

In Europe, political leaders are waiting for signals from Hamas about how it will lead the Palestinian Authority. Will it eschew its goal of the "destruction of Israel" and transform itself into a pragmatic political organization as the once violent Fatah movement did? Or will it continue to pursue its political goals by militant and terrorist means?

The EU's Commissioner for External Relations, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, said the EU will work with any Palestinian government which commits itself to peaceful methods. Britain's Tony Blair perceives a fork in the road at which Hamas must "decide between a path of democracy or a path of violence." German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said his country could conceivably work with Hamas, but only under the stipulation that it "renounce violence and recognize the right of Israel's existance."

In Berlin, Gerd Weisskirchen, the foreign policy spokesman for the Social Democrats, the junior partner in the coalition government, has threatened to let the Palestinian Authority's "financial springs dry up" by cutting off EU funding  for the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Eckart von Klaeden, his colleague in the conservative Christian Democrats concurred, threatening sanctions if Hamas does not show its willingness to play a "constructive role," beginning with recognition of Israel's right to exist and the renunciation of militant force.

Politicians among the opposition Greens and Left Party disagreed with the approach -- and suggested something more nuanced was needed. Jürgen Trittin of the Greens warned against sanctions in the Berliner Zeitung newspaper. In an almost Kantian point about electoral intent, he claimed that the Palestinian electorate voted for Hamas, "not so much because of the radical rhetoric towards Israel," but rather because of economic and social motivations . "Now the Hamas must consider whether it wants to do that which it was elected for." But German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she will hold to her planned schedule to visit Israel and the Palestinian territories early next week. 

On Friday, German-language newspapers sift through the electoral wreckage.

Switzerland's Neue Zürcher Zeitung is more hopeful that a constructive solution is still possible -- if Hamas is able to adapt to its new role. Unlike the Fatah Party of Yasser Arafat and his successor, President Mahmoud Abbas, "Hamas has shown that it can establish and maintain social institutions that aid poor Palestinians. The insistence of the Islamists on the moral fundaments of religion encourages the belief of the voters that they have the will and the ability to end corruption and nepotism. The departure of the Israelis from the Gaza Strip after five years of intifada also confirmed in the eyes of many Palestinians that the armed fight against Israel, which the Hamas in contrast to President Abbas propagates, will bear fruit." The NZZ states its confidence that Hamas' new role in government will serve to curb its ambitions. It notes that in recent months Hamas has shown an increasing willingness to take on responsibility and meet its duties. The Fatah Party has struggled to get its members to adhere to the cease-fire with Israel, whereas Hamas has adhered to it. "The organization has for the most part stopped its bombing of civilians in Israel," the paper writes. "Without retracting its ultimate aim of destroying Israel, the Hamas leadership has in the last month shown a willingness to erect a Palestinian state in the Gaza strip, the West Bank and in East Jerusalem as an intermediary goal." If this trend can be rescued after the initial shock of the election, the paper concludes, and Hamas does accept its political responsibility, this could represent the first opportunity for peace that would involve all the important factions.

Austria's Standard is not so easily consoled. "The election victory of Hamas is a shocking event, a giant step back, and at the same time the result of 20 years of a mismanaged conflict in the Mideast," it writes. The paper concludes that the Hamas victory has many fathers. "Especially the Palastinian Authority under Arafat, which was both corrupt and lenient towards terror," the paper writes. "Then the European Commission which pumped money into Gaza and Ramallah without securing the principles of 'good governance'. And finally Israeli governments, which already during the first intifada in the eighties repeatedly supported the Islamists in order to weaken the PLO."

In Germany, Munich's Süddeutsche Zeitung sees the results as part of a broader trend of Islamization in the Middle East. Arab politics are being "Islamacized." Hamas, according to the paper, "has long been the dominant force; the election victory legitimizes the opposition movement beyond the parliament, but it also forces this movement to become more disciplined. Those who govern, must stick to their words and deeds. Terror is not an alternative for any Palestinian government, not even Hamas." After all, the military power of Israel is far too overwhelming -- it even went so far as to bomb Yasser Arafat's headquarters when he was running the Palestinian Authority. If Hamas takes over the responsibilities of government, the paper concludes, the Islamists will have to be prepared to start a constructive dialogue with Israel and the west.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung claims that the victory of Hamas demands that the west remain calm and collected. "The Americans and the Europeans primarily view Hamas as a terrorist organization," the paper notes, and President Bush has already made disparaging comments about the success of Hamas. Now one must wait and see how the government in Ramallah is formed and which signals the new Palestinian authorities under the influence of Hamas are sent out. "The success of the Hamas was established in elections which largely conform to democratic principles, principles which Europe and America have insisted on constantly and over a long period of time. One wants to establish this all over the Arab-Muslim world. That means one also has to accept those results, which one hardly desired," the FAZ concludes.

In its editorial, the leftist Die Tageszeitung expresses the belief that success will temper the extremists in Islamist Hamas movement. "Hamas is not al-Qaida," it writes. "On the contrary: Of all the Islamist organizations, Hamas is the most predictable. And the most adaptable." The paper also prints an interview with Israel's ex-ambassador to Germany, Avi Primor, in which Primor affirms this view of a very protean Hamas. He believes that the Hamas like the PLO may give up its fundamental opposition to the state of Israel. "It is possible, not because they will suddenly love us, but because they will now have different goals and other needs and requirements."