At the end of the day, these states and governments in principle don't have any objection to going farther than they have already gone, but are being held back by their public opinion which is opposed to such relations. |
At the popular level, Sharon has been far and away the most hated Israeli official for the past several decades. On the whole, people will simply take delight that, from their perspective, he's no longer on the scene to torment them. |
If that experiment succeeds, then the other parts of the Muslim Brotherhood will be clamoring for elections themselves and feel emboldened to achieve power and leadership through the ballot box. |
Iran has problems of its own. I don't think it's going to go out of its way to create an additional one. |
Realistically, there's unlikely to be a dramatic turn for the better or worse on security in Gaza in the near term. This will be no model for a future state. |
The challenge for Abbas is to compel Israel to deal with Palestinians and the Palestinian agenda. Otherwise his credibility is going to suffer enormously. |
The Palestinians are now in a heightened state of instability, of genuine chaos bordering on anarchy and incipient disintegration. They're not in a position to exploit the room for maneuver that Sharon's demise theoretically provides them. |
You're talking about a democratically elected Islamic government that is part of the wider Muslim Brotherhood network in the region. |