Palestinian politicians and analysts agreed that Israeli political crisis evolving from the corruption allegations against Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the notions to topple him negatively impacted on the Palestinian-Israeli talks and might lead to Israeli military escalation.
What's more, though their opinions vary on whether the downfall of Olmert might lead to that of his negotiation partner, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, they all agree that it would at least weaken him.
Israeli Defense Minister and chairman of the Labor Party Ehud Barak on Wednesday asked Olmert to step aside after a US businessman testified on Tuesday that he gave Olmert 150,000 US dollars in cash over 15 years.
Barak said that his Labor Party could force an early election if Olmert refused to go, raising mounting speculations on the fate of the Israeli leader as well as of the prospect of the Israeli political arena in the wake of the crisis.
Wissam Afifa, chief editor of the pro-Hamas al-Resala semi-weekly newspaper, noted that Abbas, already in despair and pessimism after his last visit to Washington as US President George W. Bush pledged little regarding the establishment of a Palestinian state, will encounter a new blow if a new premier is elected in Israel.
With the downfall of Olmert, the consequent elections would surely bring about turbulences in the Israeli political arena, according to Afifa. Besides, any new Israeli ministerial formation will have its own views, and all those do not bode well for the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.
The chief editor expected that in case Olmert is brought down, Abbas will fall as well. However, he stressed that Abbas' has not lost all his cards yet, and he might turn to mend the Palestinian-Palestinian file after the failure to appeasing Israel and the United States.
However, according to Afifa, the Israeli internal situation will not affect the Hamas movement too much, as its stance from the very beginning has been clear enough and it never bet on negotiations and Bush's baseless guarantees.
