According to the London Telegraph, the civil war in the Palestinian territories will get even hotter over the next few days. Mahmoud Abbas plans to shut down private organizations that support Hamas or act as front groups. Fatah militias may not bother to wait for that review, and have already started attacking Hamas assets in Islamist strongholds such as Nablus:

It is just 12 days since Hamas fighters staged their putsch in Gaza, routing Fatah security forces and forcing the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, to declare an emergency, sack the Hamas-led unity government and appoint a new one without the Islamists.

Since then, the Fatah party has embarked on settling the score with its Islamist rivals in the West Bank, its commanders vowing to eradicate Hamas.

Many fear that the showdown will further radicalise the Palestinian territories, and risks triggering a renewed wave of suicide bomb attacks against Israel. Hamas launched dozens of attacks against the Jewish state, killing hundreds of Israeli civilians, but has largely abided by a ceasefire for the past two years. ...

Although Fatah is the dominant force across much of the West Bank, Hamas still has strongholds - not least Nablus - where its candidates won enough votes 18 months ago to propel it to power.

In the past week, Hamas-controlled city councils, including that in Nablus, have been disbanded by decree of militant Fatah members.

It seems that all of the hatred and malice that has stewed in the territories and usually directed at the Israelis have been turned inward. Each side has started to "disappear" their opponents, and the situation in the West Bank may turn as grim as that in Gaza, at least for the moment. Fatah militias, whose control by Abbas may be questionable, have begun their own purge of Islamists, furious at their betrayal in Gaza.

The Israelis may find the situation temporarily just as bad. Hamas has threatened to start terrorist attacks in Israel again, ostensibly because Israel is backing Fatah in this civil war. The real reason may be an attempt to get ordinary Palestinians back on their side to force Fatah into talks. Hamas made the claim yesterday that they didn't want to run Gaza, but to end disruptions by rogue Fatah militias -- an odd claim for a group that attacked Palestinian Authority security installations and Abbas' Gaza compound. They're trying to win a PR war that they lost in their insurrection.

Abbas, however, sees an opening for his own ambitions. Mostly free from having to appease the Islamists, he can pursue normal relations with the West and with the moderate Arab nations that dislike Hamas almost as much as Israel does. He can once again get his hands on aid monies in hard currency and use it to prop up his failing political fortunes.

The only way to do that, though, is to make progress in peace negotiations, and this time Egypt and Jordan will demand real action from Abbas, unlike in the past. They see Hamas' rise as an Iranian attempt at encirclement in the region, and they want to end the conflict which allowed Hamas to gain that kind of power in the first place. They can't afford to act like bystanders any longer, which is why both of them demanded that Abbas come to Sharm el Sheikh with his pencils sharpened.

Will it be enough? Abbas has certainly talked tough, claiming that Hamas would never be allowed back into the government, but that's easier said than done. Egypt tried the same thing with Hamas' parent organization, the Muslim Brotherhood, which just went underground instead -- and gets its candidates elected as independents. The coming catastrophe in Gaza may be enough to finish Hamas politically, however, especially if Abbas can cut a deal with Israel that brings an end to military occupation peacefully and with prosperity for the West Bank. For the first time, Abbas has more incentive to do that than to continue Yasser Arafat's suicidal policies of the past. Let's see if Abbas has the brains to realize it.

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