Where does he hide now? Mahmoud Abbas, de facto dictator of the Occupied Territories is in hiding from his own people! Unlike his predecessor Yasser Arafat, who was incarcerated in his Ramallah HQ - under siege from Israel; Abbas is an esteemed guest in Jerusalem

The Hamas-Fatah clash that has culminated into a mini-civil war in recent weeks is both old and new, and while some of its elements are uniquely Palestinian, much of it was manufactured at the behest of US-Israeli intelligence and governments.

The tensions between Fatah and Hamas are decades old. Fatah has - since the late 1960s until today - claimed a superior, if not exclusive, position at the helm of Palestinian politics. At times there seemed little margin for any other organization - be it secular, socialist or religious - to share a platform with Yasser Arafat's movement.

Dramatic developments in the Occupied Territories of Gaza and the West Bank have catapulted the Palestinian freedom struggle onto a track which, despite the accompanying tragedy, may in fact be the only route for the elected government of Hamas to propel.