The Palestinians are swiftly splitting at the seams. The appearance of a new Fatah militia has raised the stakes in the power struggle with the Hamas government, nudging the two opposed ideologies closer to a large-scale conflict. The new 2,500-man Fatah unit, deployed Saturday in the West Bank town of Jenin, is the group’s answer to the 3,000-strong Hamas militia that the government mobilized last month in spite of Abbas’ objections. Its presence fueled tensions between Fatah and Hamas that have already raised the specter of civil war.

It was obvious from the start that this marriage was certainly not one of convenience and, as such, was on the rocks. This is a power struggle between Fatah, the group that has basically controlled every detail in the lives of Palestinians for over 50 years, and the new kid on the block who won January’s parliamentary elections in a stunning reversal of power. Where the former seeks to continue negotiations with the Israelis, with the eventual outcome to be a Palestinian state alongside Israel, the latter too seeks a state, as outlined in Hamas’ charter, on all of historic Palestine, replacing the state of Israel. Now for the first time — if Mahmoud Abbas’ referendum plan goes ahead — the Palestinian people will get to decide for themselves what kind of state they really want.

A deadline is on the doorstep. Abbas has given Hamas until early next week to accept the idea of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, or there will be a national referendum on the issue. He is gambling on one central belief: that the majority of his people are ready to accept a two-state solution. Polls show that Palestinians want peace talks that could lead to the creation of a Palestinian state, if it’s a viable one, on all the lands Israel occupied in 1967, not all the way back to 1948. And East Jerusalem will be the country’s capital. But Hamas argues that the real problem is Israel’s refusal to give up the spoils of the 1967 War, not its own refusal to recognize Israel, and that no matter how many times Palestinians recognize Israel, or vote for a two-state solution, Israel will never voluntarily agree to withdraw from the West Bank and East Jerusalem, now crowded with Jewish-only settlements and divided by a gigantic concrete wall which reduces most Palestinian population centers to open-air prisons and detention camps.

Abbas is reported to have begun meeting with leaders of various political factions to try and settle their differences, but Hamas representatives are said to be absent. Perhaps what angers Hamas most is that Abbas’ move is perceived to be as much an ultimatum to Hamas as it is to Israel and Ehud Olmert’s unilateral designs.

So the rivalry proceeds unchecked. Unless Hamas disbands its new force, Fatah will reportedly create other militia units across the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This is while Fatah officials say they have information that Hamas wants to flex its muscles beyond its Gaza power base and has begun organizing a militia in the West Bank. The spread of gun-wielding militias across the territories with the specific intention of showing who’s boss looks, smells and feels much like a civil war in the making.