Civil War Coming to Arafatistan?

Many critics of the Iraq war have said that you can't bring democracy to the Arab world - they just can't handle it. I'm beginning to wonder if that's true, not only in Iraq, but in the Palestinian territories. Things in Arafatistan are starting to get pretty touchy, with Fatah trying to hang on to power, and Hamas trying to take that which they believe they won in the election. From the Washington Times:

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has ordered all main branches of the security forces to report to him personally, in a bid to forestall their takeover by Hamas, the Islamic militant movement.

The decision also was aimed at assuaging rising anger from security forces members themselves, backed by one of their leaders, Civil Affairs Minister Mohamed Dahlan who controls the preventive security forces in the Gaza Strip.

It remained far from clear whether Hamas will accept the bid to sustain the power of the long-dominant but increasingly fractious Fatah movement.

It doesn't look like Hamas wants to play along:

Hamas' internal leader, Mahmoud Zahar, told The Times that his organization planned to take control of the security services and turn them from "serving Israeli interests" to "confronting Israel and protecting our people."

"We are going to bring the Palestinian security section with the resistance groups on our borders to protect our land and to protect our interests," Mr. Zahar said.

Asked whether Hamas' armed wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, would be integrated into the Palestinian Authority's official forces, he said: "We will be the Palestinian Authority, and they will integrate with us."

Both sides are armed to the teeth and neither seems interested in a peaceful transition of power. Should Hamas complete their takeover, Arafatistan may well lose much of their financial support from civilized nations who don't like the idea of funding a terrorist government.

At this point I'm sure the Israelis are hoping the two sides will occupy themselves by shooting at each other and leaving the Israelis alone.