I find Mark Heller's suggestion, in the Jerusalem Post, that Arafat address the Israeli electorate on TV, highly amusing. I fail to see what the honorable "Ra'is" could possibly say to convince us of ... of.... well of anything, really. His dedication to peace? Hah, good one. His determination to fight terrorism? Oh, funny. I don't think I'd even believe him if he said he was resigning from all public activities and moving to Paris to be with his wife and daughter. Even if he was being interviewed on the steps leading up to the plane. Even if he was already in Paris. Even if… OK, OK, you get the picture.

I would strongly suggest the Palestinians keep clear of our elections. I was disgusted with Saeb Erekat's cheek. Immediately on hearing about the elections in Israel he found it appropriate to make a statement that sounded rather threatening to me. A sort of "Israelis will know who to vote for if they know what's good for them", or at least that's how it sounded to me. And if he's interested in influencing public opinion in Israel, he should be interested in how it sounds to someone like me, shouldn't he?

Any attempts to influence Israeli public opinion by Palestinians will backfire, just as any Israeli attempt to directly influence Palestinian public opinion will also have the opposite effect.

Isn't that clear by now?

Update: Reading this again, what I meant to say was : any Israeli attempt to openly influence Palestinian public opinion...
That sounds more like it.