AP Hamas supporters celebrating their election victory Thursday in the West Bank town of Ramallah.

The who's who of influential people in the Palestinian-American community will likely change.

Other than that, say Palestinians living in North Jersey, it's wait-and-see on how the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas' landslide election victory in the Occupied Territories will affect their people abroad and at home.

"This will be an awakening for Palestinians in the New Jersey area," said Aref Assaf, president of the American Arab Forum, a Paterson-based think tank. "They will have to reconsider their relationships and contacts with the Palestinian Authority. We have to start from scratch building relationships with the new regime."

That means there may be a shift in leadership within the community, Assaf said, as new faces emerge with contacts and access with Hamas leaders.

Despite the freshness of the historic vote, Yaser Baker didn't have the TV in his restaurant, Al Basha, on Main Street in Paterson tuned to CNN. The dozen diners there Thursday evening were watching Mideast pop videos.

"We tell the customers there's no politics here," said Baker, a Palestinian. Later he confided, "Usually we'd be busier, but people may be home watching their television. When I go home, I'll watch the leftovers."

But in back of everyone's mind was the uncertainty and excitement generated by Wednesday's election of 76 Hamas candidates to the Palestinian Parliament -- the majority of the 132 four-year seats.

Mohamad Abeuras, who came to Paterson from the Mideast three months ago, said, "The people chose Hamas because they have had a bad experience with the Fatah movement.

"It's not because they necessarily like Hamas," he said while working at Nablus Sweets and Pastries in Paterson. "People don't trust the peace process with the Fatah movement."

Fatah has been mired in corruption. In comparison, Hamas -- until recently a shadowy militant group whose suicide bombings earned it a terrorist label -- has delivered social reforms and built infrastructure such as hospitals and universities, especially in Gaza.

In terms of civil rights, "I'm concerned about what Hamas' victory might mean for women's rights," said Maha Kabbash, a board member of the Clifton-based New Jersey Chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. "The movement is based on Islamic law, but on the other hand I've heard that there were many female candidates and women participating in the election, so it's an interesting dichotomy."

Unprecedented numbers of women turned out for the elections and they accounted for 85 of the 728 candidates -- 13 on Hamas' national ticket.

To Salaheddin Mustafa of Clifton, Hamas' militant image is something else of concern. But he said its emerging power wouldn't stir a backlash toward Palestinians in the United States.

As for President Bush's statements in his press conference Thursday, Mustafa said he expected harsher rhetoric.

"Sounds like he kind of opened the door," he said of comments that included referring to the election result as a reminder of the power of democracy.

But Waheed Khalid, chairman of the Bergen County Chapter of the American-Muslim Union, was less pleased. "The Bush administration has to be careful in their statements so far," Khalid said. "He did not talk about any obligation on the Israelis to comply with the many, many resolutions that are in place or to talk about a viable Palestinian state in place."

Members of the North Jersey Palestinian community agreed that the primary goal is unchanged: an economically viable and independent Palestinian state including the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem as its capital, existing peacefully, side by side with Israel.

"The issue that needs to be resolved is not Hamas or anybody else," Mustafa said. "A lot of it is almost irrelevant if you're not talking about ending the occupation in a reasonable way."

E-mail: collinsp@northjersey.com and crouse@northjersey.com