The division in the domestic Palestinian political scene in advance ahead of Israel’s forthcoming withdrawal from Gaza is pronounced. The Palestinian Authority, under the leadership of President President Mahmoud Abbas seeks a smooth, co-ordinated transfer of power in order to define the Israeli pull-out as a positive step towards ending the occupation of the West Bank through negotiations and the reactivation of the road map for peace. The Islamic Resistance Movement, However, Hamas, the militant Islamic group, is trying to demonstrate through rocket barrages and planned martial displays that the withdrawal is a military victory achieved by the group’s violent campaign against Israel. Further attacks, they believe, will lead to more Israeli pull-backs.

With such competing divergent reactions to the Israeli withdrawal and the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the US and the European Union must present a united front in their efforts to empower Mr Abbas’s Palestinian Authority. Reports this summer that EU representatives had begun meeting recently-elected Hamas local officials suggest a disturbing precedent. Hamas’s behaviour and strategy indicates that such interactions are counterproductive and weaken Mahmoud Mr Abbas’s leadership of the PA, its divided but still dominant Fatah faction, and the pursuit of a two-state solution. The impetus to engage Hamas stems from the group’s growing political support demonstrated by its victories in local municipal elections this year. The EU denies it is engaging in “a political dialogue” with Hamas and says its officials declare it will not until Hamas renounces violence and accepts Israel’s right to exist. But whatever Hamas’s electoral prospects, meeting its officials now, even locally, , even to discuss municipal projects, bestows legitimacy on it without forcing it to abide by Mr Abbas’s approach to forgo violence for in favour of political negotiations with Israel. Already, many Palestinians view these meetings as a sign not just of EU policy but of the US’s consent.