"Right now with the Palestinian Authority in partial disarray and rival governments in power in Ramallah and the Gaza Strip, it is not as though conditions were ripe for an impending breakthrough in the peace process," Ambassador Dore Gould, President of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, told Xinhua.

"It is critical that the Palestinians get their house in order before one can speak about workable peace arrangements," Gould said.

Ghassan Khatib, Vice President of Birzeit University near Ramallah, also does not believe Olmert's departure will make much of a difference.

"I don't think that this development will change the already stagnant peace process," Khatib told Xinhua in a telephone interview.

"Weakness of the Israeli leadership and the internal problems such as the split between Gaza and the West Bank and Fatah and Hamas was not aligned anyhow to any serious progress in the peace process to be disrupted by the absence of Olmert," Khatib said.

Though the White House has said that its goal of uniting Olmert and Abbas in a peace deal remains on track, U.S. politics has been increasingly consumed by upcoming national elections.

"Peace negotiations that have been going on were not showing any progress and most analysts did not expect to see any change due to the perspectives of the leadership in both Israel and Palestine and in addition to that the election in the U.S.," Khatib said.

While the peace process has been relatively sluggish, nearly three years of hostility by Gaza militants following the disengagement of Israeli troops from the West Bank have slowly pushed Israeli public opinion further right, some analysts say.

"Following the disengagement and the rise of Hamas in Gaza, the Israeli public has become more right-wing and Israel and any future leaders are less open to the peace process than (Olmert) was," said Oppenheimer.

Whether the peace process moves on depends on "a mix of public opinion" and leadership, according to Oppenheimer.

(Xinhua News Agency August 1, 2008)