Palestinian public pushes deal

Even so, it is clear that improving the day-to-day conditions of Palestinians will give Abbas a boost.

Khalil Shikaki, a leading Palestinian pollster, detects an increasing desire among Palestinians for a "mutual cessation of violence" and a reassessment of the role of violence in the struggle against Israeli occupation. He also observes a growing willingness for Palestinians to call for immediate political reforms - greater democracy and better governance - rather than accepting the argument that such demands are impractical in the midst of the conflict.

Mr. Shikaki says that Abbas is intent on getting the Israelis to ease their security restrictions - thereby making it easier for Palestinians to do business, attend school, even go to the hospital - in order to win political support. "There is no doubt," says Mr. Shikaki, who directs the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah, "that these small things can play a pivotal role" in expanding popular support for a US-backed peace plan, called the road map. "People are not going to support the peace process until they see movement," he adds.

Sitting in his air-conditioned, wood-paneled office in Beit Jala, a town next to Bethlehem in the West Bank, businessman Abdallah Hodali pines for a little normalcy. "I want one thing," he pleads. "Make me free. I want to move freely."

Khaled Mahmoud, a security guard at a stone factory in Bethlehem, says that Abbas "should remove all these barriers .... The most important thing to do right now is to reduce the suffering of the people."

Mr. Hodali's business - producing logo-emblazoned T-shirts and other promotional products, mainly for the Israeli market - is down to about a third of what it was three years ago. Israeli-imposed security restrictions have impeded his work and his family life. Visiting a village a few miles outside Beit Jala is now, he says, "a dream."

He, too, has some advice for Abbas, who is also known as Abu Mazen. "All the Palestinians are with Abu Mazen if [he] opens the roads for us and moves the checkpoints back to where they were before the intifada." But Hodali is no fan of the road map, which he says "is killing Palestinian hopes for a real Palestinian state."

But he will settle for some short-term improvements. "If they open the roads they can negotiate for 10 years," Hodali says.

Shikaki isn't convinced that frustration alone is driving the Palestinians to concentrate so intently on wresting some improvements in their situation. The road map, which foresees the creation of a Palestinian state, along with statements to the same effect from Mr. Bush and Mr. Sharon, "gives them the political horizon that allows them to focus on their immediate needs."

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