Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Monday that "the Foreign Ministry believes, in contrast with other authorities, that Hamas is currently stronger than Fatah in Judea and Samaria".

"Hamas does not currently desire to take hold of power there," he told a debate at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

"They are waiting for the day after Abbas and Fayyad extract the maximum they are able to get out of the international community, and then they will seize power."

Lieberman added that "the Palestinians prefer the option of acting in the international arena to negotiations with Israel. They think they can gain a lot more that way."

The foreign minister's prediction does, indeed, differ from that of defense and intelligence agencies, which have estimated that Hamas is not very influential in the West Bank.

But Lieberman, when questioned on this, retorted, "The Foreign Ministry was also the only one that said, before the uprising in Egypt, in closed door discussions, that President Hosni Mubarak's regime was at risk."