Indeed. Sometimes, it comes down to choice between "useless scumbag", "spineless thief", "clueless, well meaning dolt" and "scumbag with an idea and strength to make it work". Which one would you pick? Oh, and protesting would get you shot, and you can't just GTFO from the country for whatever reason, so you're out of 3rd options, too. Hamas, at the time, probably seemed like the lesser evil, at least as far as Palestinian interests were concerned. Also, many Palestinians probably thought "Oh, well, they'll get rid of Israel, win back our land, then we'll be able to un-elect them if they don't behave afterwards". In most cases, an elected government, no matter how shoddy, does only last a single term, so it's not an invalid way of thinking. Though in that case, Hamas had other plans...