On the AU campus, opinions vary greatly on how recent election results in Israel and Palestine will impact progress toward Middle East peace.
Israel's centrist Kadima party, led by acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, won the country's parliamentary election Tuesday with a total of 28 seats. Closely following was the Labor party with 20 seats. Shas and Yisrael Beitenu won 13 and 12 seats respectively, while right-wing Likud won 11.
One of the major election issues was how the new government will deal with Hamas, which officially took power Wednesday, swearing in Palestine's new 24-member Cabinet.
After the recent disengagement from the Gaza Strip, completed on Sept. 12, 2005, the new Israeli government faces decisions about whether or not to give up more land, according to Bonnie Weintraub, vice president of AU Students for Israel.
Weintraub predicted that the Kadima victory is to hasten disengagement from the West Bank because it signals approval for party founder Ariel Sharon's previous actions.
Commenting on Olmert's ability to work with Hamas, Weintraub said much will depend on how the Palestinian government reacts to the election and how the international community treats Hamas.
"In my opinion, Hamas is a terrorist organization and should not be dealt with," she said. "But, on the other hand, if Israel does not work with them, there is nobody else to work with."
School of International Service professor Mohammed Abu-Nimer agreed that the primary question facing the new government is whether or not to talk to Hamas. A unilateral withdrawal from the West Bank would not be well received by the Palestinians, he said.
According to Lena Mansour, a sophomore in the School of Communication who is Palestinian, Hamas is a militant organization that engages in retaliation and resistance to occupation. But, she added, they have other programs, such as building schools and hospitals in the area.
But some do not think Hamas would cooperate in negotiations with the new government.
"Hamas is a radical, terrorist organization and will continue to be so; there is no reason to believe otherwise," said Barry Rubin, director of the Global Research and International Affairs Center at the Interdisciplinary Center in Israel and Abensohn Visiting Professor to AU.
"Israel is going to withdraw from more territory and give the Palestinians a chance to show that they want to make peace," he said.
According to Rubin, Israel does not want the territories captured in 1967. He described the problem as a matter of not facing a state which will use terrorism to try to destroy Israel.
"Hamas' goal is genocide, and it says so every day," he said.
Conversely, Mansour is concerned about ethnic discrimination from the new Israeli government. She found the election results "terrible and terrifying" because of the 11 seats won by right-wing Yisrael Beitenu, which she said advocates for the transfer of all Arabs from Israel.
The only way the government can start negotiating with Hamas, she said, is if they begin pulling out of the territories. But there is more to the picture concerning disengagement from the West Bank, said Shan Beuthe, co-president of Students for Justice in Palestine.
"Israel is going to withdraw from the West Bank, but I think they are going to do it on their own terms - and those terms aren't particularly good for the Palestinians," she said.
Beuthe said she is concerned that without a negotiated withdrawal, Israel will keep large chunks of arable land with water tables.
"It would be a death toll to any idea of sharing Jerusalem," she said. "If it is a unilateral withdrawal, I don't think it will be a successful one."
According to the Anti-Defamation League, there is no mention of further unilateral withdrawals in Kadima's official platform. However, Olmert has stated that if bilateral negotiations fail he will create permanent borders for Israel separating it from the majority of Palestinians living in the West Bank.
Public opinion, rather than the election results, may be the deciding factor for the future of Israel-Palestine relations.
"It's not so much the leaders themselves as it is the circumstances of the time," said Rachel Victor, president of AU Students for Israel.
