Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a senior adviser to Yasser Arafat, speaks to the media in Gaza City. (Reuters)

	Advice to Sharon Daoud Kuttab, Jerusalem Post
	The Sharon factor Hanan Ashrawi
	Arab newspapers: Sharon can choose peace or war
	Sharon to present government
	Colin Powell presses Israel and Palestinians with no results
	Sharon's inauguration speech Jerusalem Post
	Prime Minister's Office
	Palestinian National Authority
	The Knesset

Despite the general distrust and hatred for Ariel Sharon in the Arab world, there were signs that Palestinian leaders were cautiously willing to give the new Prime Minister a chance.

At the time of Sharon's election, Al Baath, the official daily newspaper of Syria's ruling party, declared "The victory of the terrorist Sharon is a clear message from the Zionist entity to the Arabs which amounts to an official declaration of war." The paper said that "In choosing Sharon, Israel has opted for an escalation in terrorism, and put the future of peace in the world, and not only in the Middle East, at the mercy of a general obsessed by war."

Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said yesterday that he did not expect a war in the region. "We have to wait and see what the program of the Sharon government will be," Hariri said, as reported in Lebanon's Daily Star. Hariri said that Lebanon and the Arabs desire peace with Israel, but demanded that Israel return occupied territories and respect international resolutions first.

Kuwaiti political scientist Ahmed al-Baghdadi has suggested a possibility for peace under Sharon, in part because the government includes Shimon Peres as its Foreign Minister.

But Hanan Ashrawi, a Palestinian political analyst, doubts that Sharon wants anything more than a series of interim agreements with the Palestinians. "The new Israeli government must have a peace agenda, and very clearly it does not have a peace agenda, it's [a] policy of anti-peace," Ashrawi said.

Sharon has opportunity for peace
Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat yesterday sent a letter of congratulation to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. In his message, Arafat stressed the need to renew peace negotiations from the point they concluded. Arafat said the talks should be based on United Nations resolutions, including the resolution regarding the Palestinian 'right of return.'

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, an adviser to Arafat, told reporters that Sharon's government has "a new opportunity for the peace process." Abu Rudeina added, "The way to security and stability is to move towards a final agreement between the Palestinian and Israeli peoples based on the principles of the peace process without reservations or conditions."

On his first full day in office, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said he would be willing to meet Arafat for negotiations - if the current violence ends. "I'm ready to meet and to conduct negotiations with him, but that means we have to have quiet and security," the Prime Minister said.

Saeb Erakat, a senior Palestinian negotiator, told CNN in an interview, "The shortest way to end the violence and restore stability is by ending the occupation." According to Erakat, it didn't matter who was in the Israeli government, as long as that government was willing to comply with international agreements.

Hamas vows to continue resistance
Not all Palestinians were offering Ariel Sharon a chance. The Hamas vowed to continue its "strategy of resistance... until the full Israeli withdrawal." Ismael Abu Shannab, a movement leader in Gaza, said that the Hamas military wing Izz al-Din al-Qassam would decide whether it would carry out suicide attacks to "greet" the Sharon government. The organization has already claimed responsibility for Sunday's bombing in Netanya, and has warned of additional suicide bombers waiting to strike.

Most Palestinian leaders quoted in the press after Sharon's inauguration were more open. Nabil Amr, the Palestinian Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, commented that Sharon's speech in the Knesset was balanced. Even so, Amr rejected Sharon's call for new peace initiatives. Amr told The Jerusalem Post that the first things Sharon should do is to revive negotiations and security cooperation with the PA, and ease the economic restrictions and the closure imposed on the Palestinians.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh clearly put the ball in Ariel Sharon's court. "It's the time now for the good intentions of the new Israeli government and the policy it is going to adopt toward the peace process," he told Voice of Palestine Radio.

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