The shit has now officially hit the fan.

President Mahmoud Abbas dismissed the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority government and declared a state of emergency Thursday after four days of fighting that has left Hamas in control of much of Gaza, an aide to the Palestinian leader said.

The aide, Tayeb Abdel Rahim, said Abbas’ declaration also covered the establishment of an interim government.

The move comes after Hamas announced Thursday that Gaza is now under its Islamic rule, the first step to becoming an Islamic state.

Under the state of emergency, Abbas will have the authority replace the current Hamas Cabinet with his Fatah allies. The temporary Cabinet would have to be approved by the Palestinian Legislative Council after 30 days.

Oh boy. This is… gonna get interesting.

I never imagined that an American media outlet would ever write that one side had “won” the battle in Israel/Palestine, but there you have it: TIME Magazine writing about the ramifications of Hamas’ victory in Gaza to US policy.

U.S. policy towards the Palestinians suffered a serious blow on Wednesday, when fighters loyal to Hamas seized control of nearly all of the 30-mile stretch of land known as the Gaza Strip. Ever since Islamic Militant Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections 18 months ago, Washington has worked to strengthen President Mahmoud Abbas, who, for all his failings, was seen as the best hope for concluding a peace accord with Israel. The U.S had spent millions of dollars training security forces that were supposedly disciplined and loyal to Abbas, but as Hamas militia advanced across Gaza on a third day of fierce fighting, many of these simply cut and ran; at least 40 officers of Abbas’s elite presidential guard blew a hole in the Israeli security wall corralling Gaza and fled into Egypt.

Hamas’ conquest of Gaza may now be inevitable. By Wednesday, hundreds of Fatah forces loyal to Abbas had either run out of ammunition, fled or been cornered into surrender. Thousands of others simply melted away. By Wednesday night, the last three Fatah bastions in Central Gaza were under siege by mortars and heavy machine-gun fire, and were expected to fall. President Abbas himself was in the distant West Bank town of Ramallah (as were many of his senior commanders), far from the fighting. In Gaza, the 18,000-man police force on Abbas’ payroll failed to help the president’s men. One Western diplomat, when asked if there were any concentration of Fatah commanders still left in Gaza, replied sarcastically: “No. But try Switzerland, or their mansions in Kuwait.” From the safety of Ramallah, Abbas urged the Gaza fighters to halt “the madness.” But it was too late for that; sensing victory, Hamas shrugged off efforts by the Egyptians and others to press for a new cease-fire.

Unbelievable. First off, I never thought we’d see Hamas taking control of Gaza. A military group in a small country that was itself rather torn has no business taking control from a fully industrialized nation with Western backing.

More than that, I would think that if we’re concerned with our image in the Middle East, then letting the Islamic radicals take control in such an extremely sensitive region just doesn’t make sense. Of course, I don’t need to specify that I disagree with that outlook, but since that’s the constant rhetoric you’d think keeping Israel fightin’ strong would be high on our priority list.