The Palestinians' Hamas government is increasingly besieged. But it is clinging to power, and to its policies. Critics of the international boycott imposed on the Hamas-ruled Palestinian Authority (pa) until it recognises Israel are grudgingly having to admit one thing: it has weakened Hamas, as intended. The pa's financial crisis prompted a multi-party "national dialogue" in April. That inspired Marwan Barghouti, a jailed militant from Fatah, the party that used to rule the pa. He convinced some fellow detainees from Hamas and other groups to sign a document, in May, that called for a coalition government and implicit recognition of Israel. The Palestinian president, Fatah's Mahmoud Abbas, called on Ha-mas's leaders to accept the document; they stalled. Last weekend he set July 26th as a date for a referendum on it. And now Hamas, once a model of unity and discipline, is showing its rifts as never before.
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