New Delhi, July 10 -- Palestinians will vote again on November 28.

Whether that date represents an election or an exercise in international optics depends on factors that Abbas cannot control and that Israel has not yet addressed.

The announcement landed as Al Jazeera correspondent Nour Odeh reported from Ramallah that people were "holding back their enthusiasm" - a phrase that captures the condition of Palestinian politics at this moment. The overwhelming demand among Palestinians, she noted, is for a change in leadership. The elections are officially a mechanism to provide one. Whether they will is the question Thursday's decree leaves open.

The last Palestinian legislative elections took place twenty years ago, in January 2006. Hama...