I just wrote about the significance of Hamas' role in governing Bethlehem. Further emphasizing that this is not just a quirk of Palestinian politics is a report that Hamas has a children's newspaper which writes about the city of Seville, calling on Muslims to liberate it from infidel rule, as well as the rest of Spain.

Hamas has focused on the conflict with Israel. But they are very much a part of a broader global movement (they are an offshoot of the grand-daddy of modern Islamist movements, the Muslim Brotherhood.) This movement has ambitions beyond pushing Israel back to the 1967 borders. Eventually they may take an active role in these ambitions. We should not be surprised. I have long written that Hamas might turn international - I figured they would come after the United States. But it appears that Europe may be in their sights as well. One practical move would be to crack down on the Hamas logistical cells that are still permitted to operate throughout Europe under the auspices of raising money for humanitarian causes.

The Wall Street Jounal recently ran an extensive article on how Christians are a minority in Bethlehem and the mayor, Victor Batarseh is forced to bring Hamas into his governing coalition to run the city. The Hamas leader and Batarseh agree to disagree on many issues and focus the pragmatic aspects of running the city. One of these issues is the re-institution of the jizya (a poll tax that Islamic authorities collect from non-Muslims under their rule.) Batarseh says it is not an issue now - Hamas leaders say that they hope it will be one day.

The ambition to collect this tax is the tip of a much bigger iceberg. Islam views itself as having superceded Christianity and Judaism. So Christians and Jews are to be tolerated, but are not equal. That the birthplace of Christianity is now a Muslim majority town and soon enough political power there will be completely in the hands of the Islamists confirms for Islamists that the tide of history is behind their endeavor. Christianity will, of course, continue to exist and be tolerated. But it will be firmly under Islam's thumb.

The growing Muslim population in Europe is - to the Islamist perspective - further evidence that history is on their side. Also, right under Israel's nose, an Islamist takeover has effectively happened in Nazareth.

I rooted against Allawi in the elections. He isn't the worst guy in the world, in fact by the standards of the region he is pretty OK. But he is clearly a creature of the U.S. and at that he is just a poor man's Ahmed Chalabi. I remain a Chalabi fan - for a quick look at the caliber of this pugnacious, effectual intellectual read this interview from Egypt's government controlled al-Ahram Weekly, he ends by accusing his interviewer of not knowing anything about Iraq except what he reads in the Arab press.

Anyway, and in that vein, - I kept hearing news reports about the Allawi campaign. I took this as a sign that the media was ill-informed - Allawi has little support in Iraq. Maybe the fact that his staffers spoke English improved his campaign's visibility in the international media, but within Iraq I had no doubt that he was a minor figure. This turns out to be about right. I have since learned from a friend inside the government that many officials also thought, not that Allawi would win, but that he would be a major player.

We've been there for two and half years and key players at the top still don't seem to know anything about Iraq. We have some people who have learned a few things about Iraq on the ground.

With luck our ignorance will work out in the end. The fact that we took over the country and appointed a Prime Minister, but allowed him to be booted out of power only re-affirms that Iraqi elections are for real and builds the new government's credibility. I'd like to think we planned this out - but I tend to doubt it.