kind of paradox, where everyone's uneasy about succession, but at the same time, the same people who are uneasy about succession are also uneasy about holding an election."
"I think the level of despair that we now have among Palestinians in the occupied territories is a response to this realization that the dream of an independent Palestinian state has evaporated," Elgindy says, "and there's basically nothing left."
"Imagine the mindset that goes into a 19-year-old who picks up a knife and tries to stab a soldier. We're talking about an act that operationally has zero value in military terms, and that will almost certainly result in his own death," Elgindy says. "And yet it is something that we see increasing, to car ramming, knifing attacks, shooting attacks, someone shoots an Israeli settler, the Israeli response is to level a section of a Palestinian refugee camp."
"Even when people know the consequences, the fact that they still engage in that sort of activity, I think speaks to the level of despair," he adds. "And we should be very, very afraid of despair, because people will do almost anything."