JERUSALEM — After another day of escalating violence that included a mortar attack on the offices of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, an ambush on a convoy carrying the Palestinian foreign minister and an hour-long gun battle, Abbas’ Fatah party and the militant Islamic group Hamas late Sunday said they’d reached a cease-fire agreement. Another gun battle broke out in Gaza around midnight, however, and it isn’t clear whether a cease-fire can hold. If it does, the late night deal could help head off a Palestinian civil war, but it isn’t likely to end a six-month power struggle between Abbas, a secular moderate, and Hamas, a militant Islamic group that’s backed by Iran and Syria and doesn’t accept Israel’s right to exist. By calling for new elections, Abbas has raised the stakes in his clash with Hamas, leaving three possible outcomes: a new unity or technocratic government; new elections that could leave either his secular Fatah party or Hamas in charge; or civil war. A civil war or a Hamas election victory would destroy whatever faint hope remains that Palestinians and Israelis could resume negotiations on a permanent peace agreement. The Bush administration has been reluctant to […]