President Mahmoud Abbas’ decision to delay the announcement of a referendum on statehood that implicitly recognizes Israel’s right to exist avoids a political crisis for 48 hours; but that is all it does. The reality is that there is no common ground between Hamas and Fatah — and two days is not going to make any difference. The chasm between the two is so wide, so deep, that it is virtually unbridgeable.

The rift is no longer about power politics on the street or who controls what. It is about a fundamental clash of ideas which sets Palestinian against Palestinian and which has been avoided until now but which the Western economic boycott and the economic crisis have forced out into the open for some immediate decisions: Should the Palestinians recognize Israel’s existence? Should they be pragmatic or stick to their principles? Fatah believes in pragmatism and a two-state solution; Hamas believes the opposite — that there is a principle at stake, that the Israelis have stolen the Palestinians’ land and that the struggle must go on until Israel is defeated and a Palestinian state is established on all the land the Israelis occupy.

Between these two stark opposites what room is there for consensus? Inevitably then, in two days’ time, Abbas will press ahead with the referendum. He will have to; to withdraw it now would be political suicide. He has gone as far as he can in conceding a two days’ delay; even another delay would look like weakness.

Equally, following the prime minister’s damning dismissal of the referendum as illegal, it is frighteningly clear that Hamas will not accept the result even if, as polls have indicated, most Palestinians would vote yes to a two-state solution. That means conflict to come — bloody conflict.

There is one glimmer of hope. The weaker side in the divide is Hamas. That is not only because the majority of Palestinians support recognition of Israel under certain conditions; there is also a split in Hamas thinking about Israel. The 18-point plan accepting a two-state solution as well as the right of Palestinians to return to former homes in Israel that Abbas wants voters to approve by referendum was drawn up by both Hamas and Fatah members jailed by the Israelis. Hamas parliamentary speaker has indicted a further confusion in party policy when he said that Hamas accepted a two-state solution but that the referendum should not go ahead while the Palestinians suffer from the international boycott; unconvincing as the argument is (and is presumably nullified by salaries now finally being paid), it nonetheless raises the prospect of Hamas splitting after a referendum — not that that would be a recipe for peace.

A rump Hamas, ideologically committed to Israel’s end and a one-state solution, is as likely to turn its guns and bombs on those it considers traitors as it would on the Israelis. The only chance for peace is if Hamas is united in backing the 18-point plan. There is no sign of that happening in the next two days. The Palestinians have never been so divided.