premise: Hamas has been trailing Fatah in the polls but managed to win control of three major West Bank municipalities in local elections last week, in areas which had traditionally been Fatah strongholds.
  Israel has strongly objected to Hamas taking part in what is only the second ever parliamentary polls, arguing that the 1993 Oslo autonomy accords bar anyone who advocates violence to stand in Palestinian Authority elections.
  Hamas has been behind the majority of anti-Israeli attacks over the course of the five-year uprising and does not recognise Israel's right to exist.
  The movement's participation in the elections was one of the reasons cited by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's office for not allowing Palestinians living in occupied east Jerusalem from participating in January's election.
  "We will not allow there to be any polling booths in Jerusalem for the Palestinian elections," an official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
   If Hamas had never attacked Israel what might have  Israel done?
hypothesis: allow there to be any polling booths in Jerusalem