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Abba Eban, the brilliant statesman and scholar, once opined that the Palestinians never miss an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

Last week’s election was no exception. The Palestinian people, who voted in droves, chose to elect Hamas, the unrepentant terrorist organization that has murdered hundreds of civilians and maimed thousands more.

Hamas won 76 out of 132 seats in the Parliament – a clear majority over Fatah, the party of Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas.

From start to finish, this election has been an utter travesty. It has unmasked the radical pulse of the Palestinian people at a time when many in the West still wish to remain blind to the reality at hand.

To begin with, Hamas should never have been allowed to run in the elections at all. Just as Nazis are not allowed to run in German elections and al-Qaida members should not be able to run in elections anywhere, so it should have been with Hamas.

Since its founding, the group has murdered about 600 Israelis. As a proportion of population, that is tantamount to about 30,000 dead Americans. Nearly half of the 147 successful suicide bombings in Israel from 2000 to 2005 were executed by Hamas.

Thousands more attacks were prevented solely because of the vigilance of the Israeli Defense Forces. Lest you think of their violence as resistance, Hamas, like al-Qaida, actively targets civilians – something for which there is never justification.

Of Hamas’ attacks, 2 percent have been directed at military targets. The group prefers blowing up cafes and discos filled with innocent men, women and children. In its terror rampage, Hamas has murdered many Americans as well.

In fact, al-Qaida and Hamas have more than a few similarities. Both were founded in the late 1980s and are rooted in the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood. Osama bin Laden’s mentor, Abdullah Azzam, headed the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan. Hamas began as an offshoot of the Brotherhood’s Gaza branch.

Both groups seek to implement strict interpretations of “sharia,” or Islamic law. In the spirit of the Taliban, Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar promised that if Hamas won the elections, the group would ban dancing between men and women. He also referred to gays and lesbians as “a minority of perverts and the mentally and morally sick.” Welcome to Hamas-stan.

Al-Qaida and Hamas have worked together to destroy Israel’s vibrant democracy. They both encourage the defeat of the American military in Iraq. Al-Qaida and Hamas have collaborated to conduct terror attacks, such as the 2003 suicide bombing at Mike’s Place, a bar on the Tel Aviv beachfront.

In his August 1996 declaration of war, bin Laden mentioned Hamas’ founder, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, by name, expressing concern over his arrest. In 2004, Hamas distributed CDs in the West Bank and Gaza that pictured Yassin and bin Laden alongside other terror masterminds.

Hamas and al-Qaida –though they may differ tactically from time to time – are cut from the same cloth. They are two peas in a pod of fanaticism, intolerance and militant jihad.

Some believe that once Hamas is in the political sphere, it will be forced to become more moderate. Don’t be so sure.

Previously, non-democratic movements have used democracy to ascend to power, abolish democracy, and pursue reckless policies.

Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels admitted that “we used democratic methods only in order” to gain power. Once elected, Adolf Hitler did not exactly moderate his fanaticism or maintain elections.

Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran came to power in a popular revolution, yet still found time to ban music and implement other draconian measures.

The Palestinian people must not escape responsibility for this latest calamity. Though hardly living in an environment of tolerance or freedom, it is the Palestinians who elected this vicious terror group to lead them. Since its founding, Hamas has been committed to the destruction of Israel in its entirety and has always rejected peace.

Its founding charter states that “(peace) initiatives and so-called peaceful solutions ... are in contradiction to the principles” of Hamas. The fact that the group provides social services to Palestinians should be about as relevant as if al-Qaida had handed out blankets to poor Afghanis after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

The world must not be duped again the way it was with Yasser Arafat, the dictator who was brought back from Tunisia to lead the Palestinian people. Arafat signed a piece of paper renouncing violence and was honored at the White House. Meanwhile, he never stopped funding suicide bombers, protecting terror groups, and working for the destruction of Israel.

Emboldened by Israel’s 2005 unilateral withdrawal, Hamas is poised to be even worse.

The cliche that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is driven by a “small group of extremists on both sides” has unequivocally been disproved. By electing Hamas, a majority of Palestinians have loudly declared that they have no opposition to suicide bombing and the targeting of civilians.

The Palestinian community is responsible for any and all of Israel’s defensive measures, including targeted assassinations, closures, checkpoints and the security fence. The Palestinians have elected a party of unremitting terror and senseless war, and they must be held accountable.

All nations should refuse to court the government of Hamas-stan. The United States, the European Union and the United Nations should cease funding the Palestinian government, lest we aid in the proliferation of terror.

Hamas, like al-Qaida, must be liquidated, not accommodated. Only the naive have the audacity to believe Hamas will be anything but an implacable enemy toward Israel, America and human dignity. What a terribly unfortunate experience this has been for the world – and for the Palestinians.

Keyes is a former Daily Bruin columnist.