Mixed media: Potential peacemaker

Glimmer of hope

AFRICAN OPTIMISM: The new PLO leader was one of the main initiators of the dialogue with Jewish left-wing and pacifist movements in the 1970s and in the difficult years before negotiations were eventually started between Israel and the Palestinians.

It is, therefore, against this background that observers, Palestinians inclusive, have renewed hope that Abbas will accomplish the roadmap for peace leading to the independence of the Palestine state.

* Zana news agency, Zambia

LIBERAL NEWSPAPER: If violence is to end, Israel will have to take confidence-building steps - removing the roadblocks that make daily life so miserable and humiliating, ending closures and freeing prisoners. The United States, Britain and the European Union should persuade Israel that such gestures are in its own best interests. Mr Abbas owes his victory to the silent majority of Palestinians who yearn for normal lives in a state of their own. Israel must listen to what they want.

* Guardian, London

RIGHT-WING VIEW: The Palestinians are to be congratulated on holding as democratic an election as has been seen in the Arab world. It is now up to Mr Abbas to use the legitimacy this has given him to implement his verbal rejection of the armed struggle.

* Daily Telegraph, London

AUSTRALIAN OPINION: The peaceful poll for a Palestinian President is a rare cause for optimism in the Middle East ...

The decisive victory of Mahmoud Abbas, with something like two-thirds of the vote, in an election that is generally considered to have been free and fair, means Israel now has the opportunity to negotiate with a Palestinian leader who must answer to his people instead of the warlords who provided the power for the ramshackle regime of Yasser Arafat ... But the fact both sides in the interminable conflict are now led by men whose mandates come from the people does not mean peace will quickly follow.

* Australian

MINNEAPOLIS ANGLE: Hope walks on tiptoes in the Middle East, but it took a giant step on Sunday when Palestinians went to the polls and elected a new president, Mahmoud Abbas. Contrary to Western stereotype, most Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank are farmers, labourers, professionals and business owners; they want law and order as much as anyone ... As an important dividend, this would help assure Israel that Abbas can crack down on the militants who have turned their guns and mortars against Israeli civilians.

* StarTribune, St Paul

Doubts remain

ISRAELI SCEPTICISM:There's some puzzlement about Mahmoud Abbas, the new chairman of the Palestinian Authority. Does he accept Israel's existence, or does he want to destroy it? By insisting on a "right of return", Abbas is signalling that he, like Yasser Arafat and most Palestinians, intends to undo the events of 1948; that he rejects the very legitimacy of a Jewish state, and will strive for its disappearance.

* Jerusalem Post

ONLINE PAPER: Britain, the United States and moderate Arab countries will begin a concerted drive this week to push Palestine's President-elect, Mahmoud Abbas, toward a historic post-Arafat compromise with Israel. But what these states and their leaders want does not necessarily coincide with Palestinian needs and aspirations, or with what Abbas can deliver in practice.

Abbas made numerous election promises. They included the return of millions of refugees and of territory lost in 1967 and a Palestinian capital in east Jerusalem.

Ordinary voters who put their faith in the democratic process will hold Abbas to these pledges. ... From the moment he takes office later this week, the heat will be on. Expectations are running dangerously high.

* Simon Tisdall from Salon (link below)

MALAYAN BLOGGER: As long as the US is still willing to become proxy for the Israelis there will never be peace in the Middle East, because the Israelis know that ... they can act however they wish knowing very well that they will get support from the Americans.

At the end of the day the US will not gain any respect from the rest of the world for its failure to be a good peacekeeper of the world.

* Kamarudin, Malaysia

PAKISTANI OPINION: Mr Abbas, as the new President, is about to enter rough waters. He will have to make a choice. Will he play to the Israeli tune and be content with what Israel has to offer or will he play hardball, as Mr Arafat did? Much will depend on two factors: how desperately do the Palestinians want peace? How much fight is left in the hard-line groups?

* Daily Times, Pakistan