ARLIER this month, President Bush tried to go over the heads of the Palestinian leadership to appeal to Palestinian people to turn away from Yasir Arafat, pledging American help in their quest for nationhood if they installed a more democratic leadership.

Much has been written on Palestinian views about the use of children as suicide bombers, the targeting of civilians in Israel, and terrorism in general — issues that lay behind President Bush's call for replacing Mr. Arafat. For this article, a few ordinary Palestinians were asked at random for their opinions on America's role in the Middle East and the need for reform within the Palestinian leadership. Their answers might surprise, even dismay, the Bush administration.

Yet it seems a moment to listen to such voices, from people who do not fit the common television image of suicide bombers, stone-throwing youngsters or downtrodden refugees. In fact, most of the Palestinians, especially in the West Bank, lead lives that might seem far more familiar to Americans — working hard, living in modern apartments, shopping in supermarkets.

These are people who feel betrayed by all that has happened in recent years. They voted for Yasir Arafat in 1997 because he was their national symbol, and many, perhaps most, would vote for him now because their pride dictates that they not bow to Israeli pressures. But he is not the leader whom many would prefer if they were left to choose in peace.

Their remarks signal an underlying anger, anguish and despair, reflecting lives that, even for the middle class, are a daily agony of fear, humiliation, helplessness after two years of escalating violence between their society and Israel's. They no longer have the sense that they have control over their destiny, and most Palestinians have long concluded that only the United States can help them. Yet President Bush's exhortation to them to choose democracy, when they live under siege, has struck many Palestinians as a cruel joke. His overt support for Ariel Sharon struck many as betrayal.

It is easy to argue with these voices, to recite the litany of Mr. Arafat's failings and lost opportunities.

-Serge Schmemann