Yasser Arafat died yesterday of an unknown ailment. Now that he is dead, will Israel and the Palestinian people finally be able to have peace, or will his death make things worse. What will happen with the PLO? Will there be a smooth transition of leadership, or will there be infighting. Will the PLO remain important, or will Hamas push it aside? Will the terrorism come to an end, or will it continue?

Interesting questions. What do you think?

 

I wish there would be peace but I am skeptical. This has gone on wayyyyyyyy too long and is getting old. Give these people some land and tell everyone to behave themselves. Hell, give them Montana...nobody lives there anyway. . I suspect the militants will try to seize power now. I predict things will get uglier before they get better. Sad really.

 

No.

 

There will never be peace in the Middle East. Terrorism will never be ended. I don't think things will ever get better over there. I don't want to give them Montana (even if they did want it) - then what would happen to our Militants?

 

Dean

 

There's always Idaho for our militants...

I don't think there will ever be peace in the Middle East. Those conflicts go back thousands of years. I'm not sure it's something we'll ever fully understand.

 

Arafat stood in the way of progress with the peace process. His power was based soley upon the maintenance of a conflict with the Israelis. Without that dynamic he would have lost his position. With him out of the way there is a greater possibility for some kind of resolution but I am not very optimistic.

 

One man is gone, the mentality that it's okay to kill is not.
There has been bloodshed in that part of the world for thousands and thousands of years.
Thinking it will stop because one man has passed is putting way too much importance on Arafat.
Sad, very sad indeed.

 

That is true, but what about the more militant groups like Hamas. I wonder if his death will create just the void Hamas needs to become the main authority in Palestine.

 

Unfortunately, I think there is some truth to what you said, but does that mean that there can never be peace in that part of the world? Are we wasting our time? Is this the same in Iraq and Afganistan?