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Alex Awad, brother of Bishara and pastor of Peace Jerusalem Baptist Church says, "The Christian community particularly will regret the departure of Arafat because he was very, very much at peace and also in solidarity with the Christian community in the Holy Land."

"Arafat went out of his way to accommodate the Christian community," Alex Awad says. "He surrounded himself with Christians that he trusted very much. Many of his advisors, many of his councilors also were Christians."

In Bethlehem, Israel has made life extremely difficult. "We have the [security] wall around us," Bishara Awad says. "We are people in a jail." On the other hand, Arafat "has been protecting the Christian church and the defender of the church."

With Arafat's death, Bishara and Alex Awad say there will be a greater chance for peace as Israel had refused to talk to Arafat. "You can't have peace when you don't talk with your enemy," Alex Awad says. With new leaders to negotiate with, they believe it may be possible to move toward peace.

Others are less optimistic. "I don't believe in this fiction of a moderate group of courtiers who are being prepared for the role of statesmen," says Paul Merkley, a retired history professor from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and author of American Presidents, Religion, and Israel.

Arafat is "near the top of my list of diabolical political figures of the 20th century," he says. "He's been a diabolical influence." After being in Arafat's inner circle for so long, the second tier of Palestinian leadership is as corrupt as Arafat was, Merkley says. "They're a group of courtiers who've been in the tyrant's court for 30 years. And they've been bowing and scraping before this Nebuchadnezzar."

"After all these years of bowing and scraping … they're not real men. They have no real moral authority of their own," Merkley adds.

But Burge sees some hope among the younger leaders "who are well educated, carry Western values, and have a vision for a different kind of Palestine." Burge says Michael Tarazi, a Christian, and other younger leaders would bring a new spirit to negotiations with Israel.

"However, they are only going to be successful as representatives of the Palestinians if they are able to win the hearts of the Palestinians vis-a-vis Hamas," Burge says. "If they can't beat Hamas for the hearts and minds of the Palestinians, their negotiating power is going to evaporate."

Burge adds, "Some of the more extreme groups like Hamas would assert their own dominance in the occupied territory and it would be virtually impossible for Israel to negotiate with them."

But Hamas's appeal is limited. "I don't think Hamas will gain control," says Bishara Awad. "With Arafat being out of the picture, I think Israel will come out of this and say 'we can now talk to people.'"

Alex Awad doubts Arafat's death will lead to turmoil, bloodshed or civil war. "I think the Palestinians will find a peaceful way to replace Yasser Arafat," he says. Though he worries about a radical Islamist takeover, and what it would mean for Palestinian Christians.

Whoever takes leadership of the Palestinian people will have a tough time negotiating with Israel. Bishara Awad says Israel will ask any negotiating partners to take care of the terrorists. "People are not willing to do that. To the people of Palestine, these people are not terrorists. They are people who want liberation, who want freedom."

If the Palestinian leadership can gain control before terrorist groups, there may be a greater hope for peace following Arafat's death, Eckstein said. "I am not depressed or upset with his demise because he is in our eyes responsible for the death of thousands of Israelis and Jewish lives, innocent civilian lives," Eckstein says.

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November (Web-only) 2004, Vol. 48