From the article you cited -- and thank you, it was a little ray of hope shining through an otherwise dismal atmosphere:

In the region, where 65 percent of the population is 34 or younger, nearly half the respondents were of high school or college age, 15 to 24.

And 75% of respondents on both sides wanted a peaceful two-state solution in which both states were democratically ruled and observant of civil rights, including those of minority groups.

This coming from young adults who have probably only known peace as it's depicted on TV, unless they were lucky enough to vacation abroad. Yet I'm sure that most of their days, Israeli and Palestinian alike, are relatively normal, with the usual working and playing and studying and arguing with their families and dating their boyfriends and girlfriends. They seem to want more of that, without so much risk of being shot at or blown up. They seem to be tired of their parents' and grandparents' and great-grandparents' feud. They seem to want their children to grow up in a place where, well, they can grow up.

The next question is, who in the leadership will listen?

Re: your observation about Arafat: one hopes he will exit the political stage in a way that doesn't further enhance the status of radical anti-Israel and anti-American groups. If he were a patriot, he would resign. Small hope of that. Maybe a nice, virulent melanoma. That can take a person out in less than three months. Sure, some would say that the Israelis gave it to him, but persecution has apparently not produced stupidity in most of the Palestinian population. The poll results cited in the article support that.