Hamas and Fatah hailed a new era of cooperation as their leaders met in Cairo on November 24. In May, the two groups signed a reconciliation pact aimed at uniting Gaza and the West Bank under one Palestinian government. The purpose of their meeting, it was speculated, was to establish a transitional government over both regions that would prepare for elections in May.

No such announcement was made, though the leaders of both groups are still committed to holding elections next year.

“We want to assure our people and the Arab and Islamic world that we have turned a major new and real page in partnership on everything to do with the Palestinian nation,” said Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas agreed, saying: “There are no more differences between us now.”

“We have agreed to work as partners with joint responsibility,” he said.

Their meeting was their first since the two leaders signed the accord on reconciliation in May. The two leaders also agreed to release prisoners belonging to the rival bloc.

Ahead of the meeting, Jordan’s King Abdullah ii visited Abbas in Ramallah to join in his effort to shore up relations with Hamas. The rise of the Muslim Brotherhood and Abbas’s failure to get the Palestinians recognized at the United Nations “have compelled King Abdullah and Mr. Abbas to reconcile with Hamas, said Palestinian officials and analysts, in hopes of gaining broader political support and containing the group,” writes the Wall Street Journal.

“Growing success for the Brotherhood will isolate the secular movements in the region—including Jordan and Palestine,” the Wall Street Journal quoted Imad Musleh, al Quds newspaper columnist in Jerusalem, as saying. “That is why these two men are sitting together today.”

It reports that Mashaal is expected to visit King Abdullah in Jordan to discuss allowing Hamas to operate in the country. The group has been illegal in Jordan since the 1990s.

Last spring, Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman declared what such a deal would mean for the Jewish state: “This is the situation: Hundreds of armed terrorists will flood Judea and Samaria. I don’t think we need to go into details of what this means. … Hamas is a terror group.” Reconciliation would hurt Israel.

Regardless, the wind is blowing in Hamas’s favor. Radical Islam is rising, to the point that the king of Jordan is willing to court Hamas. Hamas’s mother terrorist group, the Muslim Brotherhood, is poised to take over Egypt.

Abbas and Mashaal are scheduled to meet again starting December 20. Watch for Hamas to grow more powerful.