News Analysis: Palestinians pin hope on new Israeli leadership for peace push

As Israel holds parliamentary elections on Tuesday, politicians, observers and analysts agreed that all the Palestinians want is a new Israeli leadership that can be a real peace partner to the Palestinians in the future.

They also agreed that since signing of Oslo Agreement with Israel in 1993, several left-wing or right-wing Israeli governments had been elected, yet none of them had ever been committed to a final peace solution that leads to ending the conflict and establishing an independent Palestinian state.

Over the past four years when Benjamin Netanyahu leads the current Israeli government, there was no sign of breakthrough of the peace process, while he continued the policy of expanding Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

The Palestinian public and the leaders of Palestinian secular, left-wing and Islamic factions agreed on the fact that all Israeli Prime Ministers are the same face of the coin.

Abbas Zaki, a member in Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Fatah Party's Central Committee, said the Palestinians won't accept to deal with any Israeli prime minister who does not recognize the establishment of a Palestinian state on the borders of 1967 with east Jerusalem as its capital.

Ismail Radwan, a senior Hamas official based in Gaza, told Xinhua that his movement is a resistance movement that was founded to resist and end the Israeli military occupation of the Palestinian lands. Therefore the results of the Israeli elections won't affect the main principle of Hamas.

"Hamas will continue resisting the Israeli occupation until the occupied lands are liberated. The resistance won't be affected no matter who will be the next Israeli prime minister, whether it is Netanyahu of Herzog, because there is no difference between the two or any other Israeli prime ministers," he said.

There is a consensus among big parties in Israel about keeping settlements and not to divide Jerusalem, while the principle of the two-state solution is completely absent from the election program of Israeli parties.

Samer Anabtawi, a political expert and specialist of Israel affairs, believed that all this would certainly complicate the situation and doesn't give any hope or clue to the Palestinians that the conflict will end soon or the peace process is to resume.

"Politically speaking, the Palestinians have tried Benjamin Netanyahu over the past four years. During these four years, the number of settlements increased and the peace process completely stalled," Hani Habib, a Gaza-based political analyst, told Xinhua.

"I think the Palestinians prefer (Labor Party leader Isaac) Herzog to win; first because they didn't like Netanyahu and his policy towards them and second they believe that may be Herzog will prefer to resume the peace talks and try to reach a peaceful solution with the Palestinians in corporation with the U.S.," said Habib.

Just before the elections several small Arab parties in Israel decided to unite in an effort to secure more seats in the elections.

Should they succeed in getting more than 10 seats in the 120-member parliament, they can have more say not only for Israeli Arabs, but also possible for the peace process.

Jamal Muheisen, a leader in Abbas Fatah Party told Xinhua that the elections in Israel "are an internal affair of Israel, but at the same time.

There are 1.6 million Arabs live in Israel and they are interested to see a government that is less radical than the current one of Netanyahu."

Saleh Zeidan, a senior member in the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine told Xinhua that having a United Arab list of parliament members "is a positive sign and this would empower the Arab's influence on any upcoming Israeli government." Endit