For Hamas, the radical Islamic group, winning an election may prove to be the easiest part of the political process. Having claimed an outright majority in last month's Palestinian parliamentary elections, the party is now trying to assemble a Cabinet. That task, difficult at the best of times, has been complicated by the refusal of other key parties to join the government and a financial squeeze by Israel. Hamas must be convinced that there is no alternative to making peace with Israel. To do that, the rest of the world must speak with one voice and the incentives for cooperation -- and the costs for resistance -- made plain.

Hamas' overwhelming victory in the January parliamentary election stunned many observers. Yet the party's popularity is quite understandable: The Palestinian Authority has been dominated by the Palestine Liberation Organization, and its Fatah faction, for decades. The PLO and Fatah have been more interested in staying in power and enriching themselves than serving the mass of ordinary Palestinians. Hamas stepped up to help them, providing the daily services that a government is supposed to make available. That is what makes Hamas popular -- not its opposition to Israel's right to exist.

Having won an outright majority on the ballot, Hamas has won the right to form a government. That process began in earnest this week, after new legislators were sworn in to the Parliament and Hamas' leaders met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Mr. Ismail Haniya is the group's nominee for prime minister. Mr. Haniya has been arrested several times by Israel and was among the 400 Palestinians expelled to Lebanon by Israel in 1992. He was injured in an Israeli airstrike targeted against Sheik Ahmed Yassin, Hamas' leader until he was killed in an Israeli attack later.