The sweeping victory of Hamas in the Palestinian parliamentary election has the Bush administration and foreign policy experts on their toes. Isn????????t democracy supposed to be what frees the entire region from tyranny? That????????s how the meme goes.

Yet fairer elections in Egypt gave one quarter of the seats to the Muslim Brotherhood, and now Hamas rules the territories. If we define democracy on these terms alone, then what we have on our hands is a political census that shows the possibility of many countries electing Islamic extremists to power. I seriously doubt the world wants to handle more than one Iran at a time, so it????????s important to look at why this trend is emerging and how it can be stopped.

Elections alone don????????t make democracy. Institutions such as an independent and corruption free judiciary tend to make a huge difference. Gaza has none of these. The Palestinian territories are run by armed rival groups all vying for turf like a bunch of gangsters. Instead of democracy, what we have on our hands is a mafia-state with elections. What should have happened during the lag time between elections is institution building, which would have allowed for channels that turn the will of the people into action.

The Palestinian territories have suffered from inaction for far too long. That????????s why Hamas won. Sure, they threaten and attack Israel, but human needs are what loyalty always comes down to and Hamas was able to provide. They offered a corruption-free alternative to Fatah, which has stolen billions of dollars in aid money that should have gone toward building an economy. Hamas provided security and healthcare services where none had been before. What did Fatah ever do for them?…

Undermining the Hamas government directly through military and political intervention would only prove the point that many Arab believe that the Bush administration only wants democracy in the Middle East as long as their man gets in. This question of hypocrisy is incredibly salient in the minds of the general population in the Arab world.

It is important to prove them wrong. But that doesn????????t mean the West has to help Hamas. The billions of dollars in stolen American and European aid are what led to the creation of the Palestinian mafia-state in the first place. The problem can be solved by cutting them off completely. Instead of depending on foreign governments for money, Hamas will have to depend on support from the Palestinian people in order to carry out the government????????s operations.

Similarly, the old monarchs of the Middle Ages, in order to finance their intra-continental wars, had to collect taxes. But to do so they had to win the support of a broad cross-section of elites who could be convinced that the war was in their best interest. It is said that this basic principle alone is what led to the development of the modern nation-state and, eventually, liberal democracy itself. A war against Israel would be pretty expensive and destructive. The Palestinians, for the most part, may hate Israel, but they????????re only going to pony up the dough if it????????s used for ???????? finally ???????? bettering their daily lives.

It is for this reason that if aid is cut and Hamas uses the levers of power for extremism, it will fail. A breakdown for Hamas would be an enormous blow to radical Islamist groups all across the Middle East, from the underground Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt to the mullahs in Iran. The people would see what it????????s like to live under a government based on Islamic extremism, and subsequently come to reject that philosophy. It would also be a victory for the region????????s real moderates who want to work under the rules of democracy.

The odds are in our favor, as long as we take advantage of it. The West has an opportunity to put an end to the vicious cycle of supporting corrupt authoritarians that breed resentment and anti-Americanism while improving our image with the people themselves. All we have to do is let Hamas fail on its own.