As the nation was transfixed on student walkouts and public protests against proposed immigration laws last week, a small ceremony took place that went almost unnoticed by much of the world.

Hamas was sworn in as the democratically elected leader of the Palestinian Authority.

With smiles on their faces and moving boxes behind them, members of Hamas formally took control of the Palestinian people. Yet they had their first taste of the fickle nature of the world’s democracies before they unpacked when the phone rang. It was Canada calling to inform that they will not give any more money to the PA as long as Hamas is in charge.

A chorus of other entities quickly followed suit, including the quartet of Middle East mediators – the European Union, the United States, Russia and the United Nations. Surprisingly, all of them had the same message: Unless the PA recognized Israel’s right to exist, honored agreements made with Israel and the world and renounced violence, Hamas would have to govern on someone else’s dime.

On Thursday, Al-Jazeera called the PA’s financial situation a “crisis,” according to its Web site http://english.aljazeera.net. At the same time, oil-rich Arab countries pledged a meager $55 million a month to help meet the costs of governing a $170 million a month budget with 140,000 Palestinians on the payroll, according to www.haaretz.com.

But it gets even worse. The financial worries of the new PA minister of finance do not end with just paying workers and begging money from Arab nations that seldom came through on past pledges.

The EU has been reviewing the former PA leadership’s accounting books and estimates that former Chairman Yasser Arafat embezzled at least $105 million, leaving his widow rich and his people destitute, according to www.eufunding.org. The PA’s $1.7 billion annual budget was unaccountable to anyone except Arafat and, now that he is dead, nobody knows where the stolen money is.

Hint to investigators: Check Swiss banks.

Last week, even the press in the Middle East virtually ignored the chaos playing out behind the scenes at PA headquarters – the continuing power struggle between Hamas and the former majority party, Fatah and instead focused on celebrations for the new government. Unfortunately, the problems of the PA and the concerns to the world are not only financial.

Both Fatah and Hamas are cut from the same cloth, and a terrorist will always be a terrorist. Israel hoped it would have a partner to negotiate with in the new PA leadership, but when one of two parties wants to annihilate the other, well, there’s no room for negotiation.

Ehud Olmert, Israel’s newly-elected prime minister, certainly recognizes this reality, and recently indicated in his victory speech that Israel will set, and impose if necessary, its final borders by 2010. His words were tough, but what did the world and the Palestinian people expect after a terrorist group was elected?

The election has set the tone for the next few years in the Middle East and has achieved something not even Arafat was able to do: It has united the world against Hamas. Eventually, financial stress will cause either enormous hardship in, or total collapse of, the PA.

Even so, it is unlikely Hamas or its followers who believe the Israelis should be driven into the sea will change their minds because that would be the same as asking Osama bin Laden and Al Qaida to give up terrorism and embrace the United States.

Pundits who spuriously declare that Hamas will create a moderate governing body should be barred from the public forum because they could not be more wrong. Allow me to make it quite simple for these “experts” on Middle Eastern politics: Hamas will never recognize Israel, nor will they renounce violence.

It does not take a genius to figure out why Arafat’s widow lives in a multi-million dollar apartment in Paris while the Palestinian people are starving in squalor.

Those who are greedy will always be greedy, and a terrorist will always be a terrorist. Hamas cannot say on a Monday that all Israelis should die, and then offer its hand in peace on Tuesday. It’s that simple.

-Steve Yuhas is a homeland security graduate student.

-This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Daily Aztec. Send e-mail to letters@thedailyaztec.com. Anonymous letters will not be printed – include your full name, major and year in school.