alties among Palestinians is a tactic used by Palestinian leaders to gain sympathy and support in public opinion. In the same Richburg article, a Palestinian man by the name of Mustafa Barghouti countered that notion by saying that the Israel’s don’t realize that each one of the deaths by themselves provides motivation to fight. “ ‘If this goes on, no one will be able to control the situation,’ said Faisal Husseini, the top Palestinian official in Jerusalem. ‘And the people will listen to no one except those who call on them to fight,’”(Hockstader, 30 September 2000). At the heart of this matter, and the promise for any hope of peace lies in the hands of the two current leaders of these fighting people. At present, the two men in charge are Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority leader Yassar Arafat. Coming off of the last few months of violence, the two have been repeatedly discussing peace negotiations, but all seem to come to a dead end. Barak, who has just begun a re-election campaign for elections that will be held next spring, seems to be stuck in a rather tough spot. He knows that any attempts he has of re-election lies in his ability to form an agreement with Arafat, and has been frantically working with officials to draw up an accord. “The idea is apparently to push hard for a fast agreement with Mr. Arafat on the borders of a Palestinian state and the fate of the Jewish settlements in the West Bank, and then, more gradually, to wrap up the most complex issues, concerning the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugee rights, on a state-to-state basis,” (Horovitz, 30 November 2000). But Arafat is already rejecting any discussion of further peace negotiations and many Palestinians believe it is just a selfish attempt by Barak to remain in office and they don’t believe he will actually fulfill his offers. In an article published in t...
