PALESTINIANS sealed off in their territories waited anxiously for the outcome of the Israeli elections, wondering if they would be the losers no matter who wins.
Most Palestinian officials including President Yasser Arafat, have thrown their support behind the "peace camp", a veiled reference to the Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Shimon Peres, even if his seven months in office are generally seen with disdain here.
But dissenting voices have been raised in support of a victory by Mr Peres's right wing challenger Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, saying he would in general follow Mr Peres' policies but without international support, which could be an advantage for the Palestinians.
"Netanyahu is better for the Arabs than for the Jews, because Netanyahu will plunge Israel back into international isolation and the ghetto, provoking tension with Arab governments and unleashing a new war," said Mr Hafez Barghuti, editor in chief of the Al Hayat Al Jadida newspaper.
"If I were Israeli, I would vote for Peres because he is the cause of the [Palestinians'] suffering. But since I am an Arab, I prefer Netanyahu's victory, and the backlash he will bring," Mr Barguti said in an editorial in the Palestinian newspaper.
Mr Hassen Qashef, a senior official at the Palestinian Information Ministry, pointed out that Mr Netanyahu's Likud Party made peace with Egypt under the Camp David accord and led only one Israeli war.
He added, however, that Mr Peres's Labour Party signed a peace treaty with Jordan and agreed to Palestinian autonomy, but it directed six wars against the Arabs, including the 17 day assault last month against Hizbullah, guerrillas in Lebanon that killed more than 170 people.
"Who will govern, Netanyahu, the descendant of Camp David and only one war, or Peres, the descendant of Oslo [where the Palestinian autonomy accords were signed], Wadi Araba and six wars?" Mr Qashef asked. "The Israeli response will be decided by extremist voters who make up the crushing majority."
The official radio, Voice of Palestine was covering the Israeli election's all day yesterday interviewing Arab Israelis, who generally support the "peace camp".
The radio was unable to send its own reporters to cover the elections because of Israel's closure of the territories imposed during the wave of Islamic suicide bombings.
The closure, denounced by Palestinians as "collective punishment", cut tens of thousands of Palestinians off from their jobs in Israel.
One of the biggest hopes in the autonomous areas in the West Bank and Gaza Strip is that the blockade will be lifted after the elections, since Mr Peres instigated the measure after he saw his huge lead in opinion polls slashed to a few points during the string of suicide bombings.
However, the prospect of a victory by Mr Netanyahu, the champion of a "greater Israel", who promised to restart Jewish settlements in the West Bank and refuses an independent Palestinian state, leaves many with little choice but to reluctantly hope for a win by Peres.