With the cease-fire holding, as of Friday, between Israeli and Hizbullah forces in southern Lebanon, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has announced that Palestinian militant groups have also agreed to a truce with Israel.

Ha'aretz reports that Mr. Abbas announced the Palestinian cease-fire agreement Thursday in an attempt to end the fighting sparked in the Gaza Strip by the abduction of Israeli Cpl. Gilad Shalit in late June.

The decision includes Fatah, Hamas and other factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Fatah had already halted its rocket fire from the Gaza Strip into Israel.

However, some of the factions' representatives said the cease-fire would be implemented only if Israel halted it s military attacks in the Gaza Strip.

The temporary cease-fire deal does not include Islamic Jihad or breakaway Fatah factions now operating in Gaza under the influence of Hezbollah.

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The Jerusalem Post reports that soon after the United Nations Security Council issued its resolution to halt hostilities between Israel and Hizbullah, Abbas headed to Gaza for talks with Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyah.

Abbas's aides said he decided to travel to the Gaza Strip after receiving warnings from Israel and the US that he must resolve the case of [abducted Corporal] Shalit as soon as possible or face more sanctions and military operations. According to one aide, Abbas even turned down a request from Washington to dismiss the Hamas government and to reinstall his Fatah party.

Abbas's argument is that such a move against a democratically elected government would backfire and make him look like a puppet conspiring with the US and Israel.

Besides, Abbas knows very well that his standing has been severely undermined now that many Arabs and Muslims are convinced that Hizbullah won the war.

In addition to the cease-fire agreement, Abbas has also been negotiating with Mr. Haniyah for a Palestinian unity government that incorporates both Hamas and Abbas's Fatah party. However, the Post reports that "Hamas, for its part, does not seem to be enthusiastic about the idea."

Should Hamas enter into such a government, reports Reuters, they would only do so if they retain most of their current political powers.

Hamas official Osama al-Muzaini told Reuters that Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh had handed Abbas a letter outlining Hamas's vision for a unity government.

"Any government must be headed by Hamas and the majority of seats should be for Hamas," Muzaini said. "It is reasonable given the fact that Hamas is the majority in parliament," he said, adding that they were not absolute conditions.

But while Hamas appears to be in a position of strength in dealing with Fatah, Scott Atran, in a commentary for The New York Times, suggests that, for the first time, Haniyah and Hamas may be ready to negotiate a true peace with Israel.

Hamas's top elected official, Prime Minister Ismail Haniya, now accepts that to stop his people's suffering, his government must forsake its all-or-nothing call for Israel's destruction. "We have no problem with a sovereign Palestinian state over all our lands within the 1967 borders, living in calm," Mr. Haniya told me in his Gaza City office in late June, shortly before an Israeli missile destroyed it. "But we need the West as a partner to help us through."

Mr. Haniya's government had just agreed to a historic compromise with Fatah and its leader, President Mahmoud Abbas, forming a national coalition that implicitly accepts the coexistence alongside Israel. But this breakthrough was quickly overshadowed by Israel's offensive into Gaza in retaliation for the kidnapping of an Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, by Palestinian militants, including members of Hamas's military wing.

Mr. Atran notes that Haniya's will for a political resolution may be countered by the more militant Khaled Meshal, the Damascus-based Hamas official who controls the group's militias and finances. But Atran writes that Mr. Meshal's influence could be diminished with financial help to pay for social services, which would weaken Meshal's hold and put pressure on Hamas's military wing to stop the violence.

Prime Minister Haniya's position comes down to this: "We need you, as you need us." For the United States and Europe, the stakes are also high. Mr. Haniya wants Americans and Europeans to recognize that the region has welcomed Hamas's election to power as a genuine exercise in democracy.

If America were to engage his government, he believes, it would be the West's best opportunity to reverse its steep decline in the esteem of Arabs and Muslims everywhere. "We need a dialogue of civilizations," he said, "not a clash of civilizations."

However, Caroline Glick writes in a commentary for The Jerusalem Post that with Hizbullah's "victory" over Israel, Israel's Arab neighbors will be far more willing to engage the Israeli Defense Forces in combat, and that the Palestinian Authority is planning to use Hizbullah's tactics to renew the fighting in Gaza and the West Bank.

Today the Palestinian Authority is nothing more than yet another Iranian proxy. During the past month of war in Lebanon, it was the supposedly moderate Fatah terror group and the supposedly moderate Fatah-led Palestinian security forces that organized mass rallies in the streets of Ramallah and Gaza cheering on Hizbullah and calling for Hassan Nasrallah to bomb Tel Aviv.

Now, in the aftermath of the cease-fire, which handed Hizbullah and its state sponsors Syria and Iran the greatest victory in their history, forces in the PA are actively preparing for a new round of war against Israel. As Hamas spokesmen have put it, Israel's defeat in Lebanon has convinced them that it is possible to adopt Hizbullah's methods to destroy the Jewish state.

But others argue that the PA is not in a position to fight Israel, as they lack the resources of Hizbullah. Reuters, in an analysis published in Qatar's Gulf Times, writes that regardless of the results of Israel's battle with Hizbullah, the Palestinian militants are still in a position of weakness.

While the gunmen might feel that Hezbollah has delivered a demoralising blow to Israel, the [Israeli] army has much greater experience against the Palestinians plus better intelligence. The militants are nowhere near as well armed as Hezbollah.

"Once Israel's hands are free it will switch focus to Hamas," said New York-based academic Mohamed Muslih.

Tellingly, Israel has lost only one soldier - to "friendly fire" - during a Gaza offensive that has killed 180 Palestinians, about half of them militants.

"To the extent that Hezbollah declares victory and people like Hamas believe it ... it could very quickly be negated by Israel moving large numbers of troops from south Lebanon to Gaza," Israeli analyst Yossi Alpher said.

Reuters also notes that some Palestinians "believe that Hezbollah's apparent strength has actually exposed the relative weakness of Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups who have proved far less effective in fighting Israel."

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Feedback appreciated. E-mail Arthur Bright.