Sheikh Muhammad Abu Tir, second on the victorious Hamas list, dwells in his ancestral village of Umm Tuba on the edge of Jerusalem.
Its flat-roofed stone houses hug the steep hillsides, and the rough road wends its way downhill to the large modern mosque where the sheikh, a senior member of the Abu Tir clan, joins fellow clansmen in formal prayers.
Since the news that Hamas won 76 of the 132 seats in the new Palestinian legislature, he not only lives but also holds court in a new but modest pink stone house where the green Hamas banner hangs in the entrance hall.
He receives guests in a chilly salon furnished with bulky plush sofas and chairs. A visit begins with formal greetings and a lad handing round tiny cups of bitter bedouin coffee. This is followed by glasses of sweet tea and dates as relays of well-wishers come and go and the sheikh breaks away to speak on his mobile phone.
Sheikh Muhammad is a tall man, dressed in a dark overcoat, his head bare, his beard dyed bright orange with henna, a fashion adopted by men in the Indian subcontinent who have made the pilgrimage to Mecca.
But Sheikh Muhammad has not made the hajj. He left his Israeli prison last July, after accumulating 25 years behind bars. "Even if I wanted to perform the hajj, the Israelis and Jordanians would not let me go," he observes with a wry smile.
He expected Hamas to gain a majority in Wednesday's election. "Hamas did very well in municipal elections, so we knew we had the support of the people. The result was satisfactory.
"We were concerned that there might be fraud, an attempt to steal ballot boxes or fix the count. But there were none of these things. We thank the election commission and the president for the success of the election," he says.
"I did not plan to stand, but I was ordered to make myself a candidate," he says.
Hamas's overall leader, Khaled Mishaal, who is at present abroad but may return to Gaza shortly, is discussing the formation of a government with President Mahmoud Abbas.
"We will make a government with Fatah," Sheikh Muhammad says. Although leading Fatah figures have said that the party will not go into coalition with Hamas, "we want a national unity government.
"Now, because they are in shock, they are reacting to the result. Hamas trusts some good people in Fatah." He will not seek a ministerial portfolio but would serve if he is asked.
Sheikh Muhammad insists that Hamas will not try to impose conservative policies on either Christians or women. "We will not press people to do what they don't want to do. We are brothers with Christians.
"Many Christians in Jerusalem vote for Hamas, and Muslims who support Hamas voted for the Christian candidates in Jerusalem. Our women fight alongside us. My mother was arrested and interrogated with me . . . My youngest daughter is studying at al-Quds University."
Sheikh Muhammad, who began political life as a Fatah student activist at Beirut University, was jailed for the first time in 1974 when he had completed only two years of his course in the Arabic language. He joined the Muslim Brotherhood in 1976 and established an Islamic group which was absorbed by Hamas at the start of the first intifada in 1987.
He says Hamas will retain its arms while its members sit in parliament. "We can't just be surrounded [ by armed Israelis] and give up our rights. Once our state is established our fighters will join its army.
"We will have a ministry of defence and an army. This is our right as it is the right of other peoples on this earth."
Sheikh Muhammad argues that the Palestinians must regain their rights before they can make peace with Israel.
"Everyone speaks about Israel's security, but Israel has taken our land and deported our people. The refugees must return and reclaim their homes.
"I can't talk to [ the Israelis] until they get out of my house. Are they ready to leave Jerusalem for the Palestinians? Why do they ask us to leave it to the Israelis?"