In this Feb. 22, 2012 file photo, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, center right, and Hamas leader Khaled Mashal talk to reporters following their meeting in Cairo, Egypt. An unprecedented gathering of top Palestinian politicians and academics this week suggests the split between Islamists and secular nationalists has hardened into permanence. Despite ongoing negotiations with Israel by President Mahmoud Abbas there is a clear sense, in both his Fatah and its Islamist rival Hamas, of a national movement that is fragmented and in crisis. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)