Military and political victory in the Middle East has arrived at a new definition. It no longer requires conventional all out success but simply survival at the end of the aggression or alternatively, preventing the opposition from achieving their goal.

Last summer, Hizbullah celebrated "success" against Israel despite the devastation of southern Lebanon simply because they did not allow Israel to achieve its goal. For Israel, this was a defeat despite their superior army and airpower because Hizbullah as an organisation still existed. Similarly, Hamas is celebrating the victory of one year in power, not because of any economic, educational or health sector successes but because they managed to defy Israel and its allies. One year on, they are still a part of the Palestinian government.

In the past year, Palestinians have experienced complete political isolation; faced starvation in Gaza with the closure of its borders; witnessed civil strife due to the economic blockade; fought off western and Israeli interference over governance; and now must regulate and restrain the factional violence that has erupted between Fatah and Hamas supporters and even officials, engineered by Washington and Tel Aviv.

In any other democracy, these odds would have ensured a complete breakdown in the government. For Palestinians, resilience has meant their very survival and so they trudge on in the hope of brighter days to come. The stalemate between Hamas and Fatah should have been resolved by the formation of a unity government. However, while the talks have persisted for months, US meddling seems designed to defeat this objective. Israel refuses to talk to Hamas, and the guardian US is facilitating a situation where it will not need to.

With Mahmoud Abbas receiving the red carpet treatment and millions in aid for "presidential security", the US is manipulating the power base in Palestine. The stick wielded over the Palestinians for decades has been more savagely used since Hamas came to power. Now that the population is on the brink of starvation, the carrot is being dangled in order to bribe them away from supporting Hamas by the very powers that have orchestrated its starvation. It is difficult to contemplate what a father would do, when the choices are between basic food on the table for his family or retaining the freedom to exercise his democratic rights. Yet that is exactly the stark choice that the calculated manipulative strategy of Israel and the US has presented many Palestinians with - abandon Hamas and we will to come to your aide.

Despite all the pressures, Hamas has retained its grass roots popularity, which reinforces the Palestinian wish to liberate their land, even if need be, through military means. To understand this, one need look no further than Palestinian experiences of past peace negotiations, where their leaders of yesteryears compromised and made deals with Israel conceding the very core of Palestinian claims to their homeland, and yet witnessed no ease in the occupation in return.

With each year, there are more, not less checkpoints. Incursions are reportedly becoming more violent; weapons employed against Palestinians more sophisticated, and occupation forces more ruthless. In the eyes of the Palestinians, international complicity in the occupation gives Israel the green light to continue with all this unabated. Hamas has held true to its core beliefs while it has been in power and as a result, in the eyes of many Palestinians it has become a symbol beyond its political existence and something they will defend. As the House of Commons, International Development Committee report January 2007 acknowledges that isolating Hamas is counterproductive and unsustainable.

Hamas has become the backbone of Palestinian resistance and survival against a brutal and heavily armed occupier and at an international level, despite castigation as a terrorist organisation; it is hailed as a resistance movement against modern day colonialist oppression. Their victory in surviving a full one year against the forces of the superpower of the day and its allies speaks volumes of its resilience and determination. Whether Hamas remains in power or not, one thing is for certain - its central political role in liberating Palestine is here to stay and it would thus be more prudent of the European Union and the US to accept the will of the Palestinian people and demand Israel talk to Hamas.

This article first appeared on www.commentisfree.guardian.co.uk