Hamas won.
Which means that the new PA government, which will be formed under Hamas' leadership, is not obligated to recognize Israel nor to keep any agreements made from Oslo through now. The word "respect" is legally meaningless and open to interpretation.
But that word does accomplish exactly what it was meant to accomplish. It allows idiotic world leaders to do what they've always wanted to do - resume funding the Hamas-led PA, talk to Hamas and allow the new PA to negotiate Israel's destruction with the fig leaf of this obvious but ignorable deception.
And it has already started:
In Paris, French Foreign Minister Philippe Douste-Blazy said inclusion of the term "respect" in reference to Israel "is a step in the right direction toward full adherence to the demands of the international community that we hold dear, including in particular the recognition of Israel."This is, of course, from the AP, which deceptively makes it sound like the document says that Hamas "respects" Israel. In fact, the document doesn't mention Israel explicitly or implicitly.
And Douste-Blazy, by mentioning the word "respect," clearly knows that the words "adhere to" were rejected by Hamas - and yet he says "it is a step in the right direction toward full adherence" to the EU's demands. No, it's not: it is a clear rejection of international demands but it is ambiguous enough to allow EUdiots like Douste-Blazy to pretend that something meaningful and peaceful actually occurred.
In the end, Hamas seems to have won this battle without diluting its hate and terror goals one iota. And now it will have the EU on its side, as the aid to the PalArabs (which already is at record levels and increased by 10% in 2006 over 2005, even with the boycott) will snowball into yet more money that will be converted into Qassams, RPGs, Katyushas and bomb belts.