If Mahmoud Abbas steps down, Hamas official next in line

Lastly, he says, while Hamas agrees in principle to letting a force of 3,000 Presidential Guards – loyal to Abbas – enter Gaza, Fatah negotiators won't reciprocate by allowing anyone from Hamas's security apparatus to come into the West Bank.

If Fatah did meet some of these demands, it would surely not be looked on favorably by Israel or the international community, which has demanded that Hamas recognize Israel and accept previous peace agreements with it in order to be counted as a legitimate political player.

'With absolutes, we'll get nothing'

Though a deeply religious man ("Abu Mazen is not afraid of the hereafter, but I am," he offers), Dweik does not subscribe to the fiery rhetoric the West has come to expect of militant Islamists.

"There's a proverb in Arabic: If you can crack the nut with your fingers, you don't have to crack it with your mouth," says Dweik, who wears a trim white beard and is the father of seven grown children, most of them with their own advanced degrees. "If we can solve this conflict by peaceful means, why solve it by violent means?"

The recurring flaw, he says, is that too many people – his compatriots and his adversaries – refuse to accept not having it all.

"In 1948, the Arabs demanded absolutes, saying we have to destroy Israel and liberate all of Palestine. Israel is now demanding absolutes by wanting to keep building settlements," he says. "But whoever demands these absolutes will get nothing. In the past, we demanded it all, and we got absolutely nothing."

If Hamas were to join a new Palestinian unity government that then reached a peace treaty with Israel, Dweik says the Palestinian Authority should put it to the people in a referendum. But Hamas hard-liners say such a treaty – or any such pacts with any "infidels" – is forbidden in Islam, making a truce the most that is likely to be offered.

Experts disagree on Dweik's role

Mohammed Asad Awaiwi, a political science professor at Al-Quds University in East Jerusalem, says that Dweik is known to be balanced, well-liked, and even a critic of some of Hamas's irresponsible moves – and would stand a good chance of winning a government post in future elections.

"When Abu Mazen says he will not run again in any elections because of the failure of the negotiations, and might resign before the elections, it is the right of Aziz Dweik as PLC speaker to replace him until the elections are held," says Dr. Awaiwi. "Why should Fatah enjoy the law when it serves them and manipulate the law when it serves their opponents?"

Bassem Zubeidi, a political scientist at Birzeit University sees it slightly differently.

"Constitutionally speaking, it's true, he should succeed Abbas," Zubeidi says. "But in actual terms, he's not really a player at this point. Not because he's a bad guy, but people here do not see Hamas as a viable option to really govern the Palestinians. I think this issue of Dweik taking over is not serious. It's part of the game: who's more legitimate" – Abbas or Dweik, or more broadly, Fatah or Hamas.

Moreover, the fundamental differences between Fatah and Hamas to remain, he says, with neither wanting to give too much.

"I think they're still not serious enough to close that deal," says Zubeidi. "They're not behaving like they're in a hurry. Part of the gain is that Hamas wants to be acknowledged as a legitimate player, and Abbas is under all kind of pressure not to go for that. He's under pressure from the Israelis and the US, and even other Arab countries are not happy to see Hamas becoming that strong."

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