Shy of confrontation at the best of times, Mr Abbas does not want to antagonise Fatah people by weakening their influenceon the security forces, and Mr Fayyad cannot push reforms through without his backing.
An informal arrangement that gives Mr Clegg's party great influenceon economic policy but relatively little on matters of security may be enough to keep the coalition a happy ship.
The high court's ruling on the state-secrets matter could influence other cases where the government is invoking national security to block litigation by terrorism suspects and others.