Vote Generates Mix of Hope, Wariness
Edna Bar-Or wants to be optimistic about the prospects for peace after this week\’s Palestinian elections, but like many Israelis, she is not sure she can.
\”I very much hope it will bring good,\” said Bar-Or, 55, surrounded by stacks of laundry and hangers full of pressed shirts at her dry cleaning shop. \”I want to be optimistic, but I don\’t think anyone knows what will be.
Israelis followed news of the Palestinian Authority elections Sunday, pausing to listen to radio and television news broadcasts and to read newspaper front pages plastered with large photographs of Mahmoud Abbas, better known as Abu Mazen. Yasser Arafat\’s former deputy won the vote by 62 percent and will become the next president of the Palestinian Authority.