Fingers crossed.
I like to think I'm optimistic about this sort of thing.
If Abbas, an elected leader of the Palestinians, was assassinated by the terrorists, it could create a lot of hostility toward the terrorist wing of the Palestinian leadership on the part of the Palestinian people. That could be a silver lining to that cloud.
Just as an aside, note carefully how this election is treated by the media, and keep that in mind when you see how the Iraq election will be treated.