If Abbas emerges, even temporarily, as the principal Palestinian leader, there is likely to be growing pressure on Sharon to deal with him.
Israel's foreign ministry has concluded that with the US election out of the way, George Bush will seek to ease his problems in Iraq and improve US standing in the Arab world by increasing pressure on Israel to re-engage with the Palestinians over the pullout from Gaza, laying the ground for broader talks in line with the US-led road map that Sharon has sought to sideline. Arafat's death could provide the mechanism for the Americans to assert that the Israeli prime minister needs to re-engage with the Palestinians.
Perhaps the deepest problem Arafat's death presents for Israel is that he was probably the only man who could persuade the Palestinian people to accept the inevitable compromises that will have to be made in any peace agreement, particularly dropping the right of return for millions of Arab refugees to what is now Israel.
But Sharon may see that as another opportunity to justify his unilateral strategy.
"The revolutionary leader who signed the Oslo agreement, who could legitimate that shift, died when the job is unfinished," Ezrahi said.
RSS