ON THE STREET

This week the Southeast Missourian asked, "Do you think the recent assassination of Israel's Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin will hurt peace talks in the Middle East?"

Patrick Douglass, Cape Girardeau

"I just think it's going to impede peace talks big time because it's going to hurt peace talks ... because the faction (of the assassin) is hard core radical and it (the faction) is going to drift even further."

Brian Smentkowski, Cape Girardeau

"It hurts (the peace talks) in as much that a key player has been taken out of the game, but when this happens ... sometimes people realize the purpose for which that person lived and for the purpose for which that person died ... in the name of peace he was assassinated by a right wing extremist who thought that Israel was being sold out to the Arabs. So he was killed by somebody who didn't like the peace process."

Michael Binz, Fenton

"I don't think it will hurt them. I think it will have an impact on them. We won't see the major impact for about a year or two. We'll see some small changes probably in the short run ... the way it's handled. Peres was for the peace talks process even before Rabin was ... for now until they get the permanent government set up that's where we're going to see a big change."

Russell Renka, Cape Girardeau

"It's a crime against democracy ... intended to hurt the peace talks. The odds are it will not."

Kyle Mabuce, Jackson

"I think in the short run it will be very detrimental because he was such a moving force by trying to unite the Arab and Israeli people. Himself, (Rabin) going between Israel, Yasser Arafat, the PLO. In the short run it's going to have a great impact because he's been the primary mover and shaker for a time. In the long run it depends if someone else can step up or not to take off where he (Rabin) left, off."