Sana al-Hibel hailed Mahmud Abbas's victory in the Palestinan Authority chairmanship election on Monday morning, then quickly got down to brass tacks: "We elected him and now he needs to end the firing of Kassam rockets," said the diminutive mother of five.

It is one thing to utter such words in the privacy of one's own home, but it is quite another to do so in the presence of the men firing the rockets.

For the past four years, Hamas terrorists have used the fields north of Beit Lahiya as a launching pad for the hundreds of mortar shells and Kassam rockets they lobbed into nearby Israeli settlements and the city of Sderot. In response, IDF tanks routinely thrash through this largely agrarian town of 40,000 people, leveling much in their path, and leaving mothers like Hibel to pick up the pieces.

After exercising her right to vote for the first time in her 30 years, Hibel was not to be intimidated by the grim-faced "mujahideen" who had sauntered over to eyeball the strangers in town. As if to spite them, Hibel continued: "I voted for Abu Mazen [Abbas] only because of his declaration that firing Kassams was stupid; I voted for him because he promised that the screaming of the children would stop." Then she proudly displayed the ink stain on her thumb to prove that she had voted.

Though unimpressed, the "mujahideen" - two young Hamas activists with straggly beards and greasy sweatshirts who, after four years of fighting, are already considered seasoned fighters - patiently waited until Hibel finished.

Then 22-year-old Fadal fired off a tirade that the boys who had gathered around the circle of interlocutors had likely heard countless times before. With a final flourish Fadal spat, "Abu Mazen sells the blood of the martyrs."

He and his sidekick, 19-year-old Bilal, were convinced that "there will be a civil war if Abu Mazen thinks of arresting the mujahideen or taking away our guns."

They also believed that "the Zionists and the Americans rigged the elections" in Abbas's favor...