‘Our Dreams Are Dead’
Our interview is interrupted by the arrival of Jimmy Carter and his entourage. "He's early," says Fayyad, looking at his watch. Rosalynn Carter, whose memoir I worked on, is startled to see me. "What on earth are you doing here?" she asks as we hug. Fayyad's meeting with Carter is going to last at least an hour, Carter's senior aide says to me apologetically. The meeting with the Palestinian prime minister has become all-important because Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, is visiting Washington and the Israeli government has stonewalled Carter because of his intention to meet with the head of Hamas in Syria.
I ask Fayyad when we resume if he is in touch with Hamas in Gaza. "No," he says. "I have no official or unofficial contact with them. However, I talk to the people in Gaza all the time. Here we are. You see? You just made a mistake, unwittingly of course, of using the word 'Hamas' and 'Gaza' interchangeably. That's not the reality. Hamas is in control of Gaza, there's no question about that, but not every Palestinian man, woman and child living and suffering in Gaza is Hamas or under Hamas obligation. This is an odd situation which I hope and pray will not be anything but transitional and will soon be a part of our past."
What about the walls, I ask him, and the checkpoints and the permits and the mood of despair I'd found in the West Bank? "I can definitely tell you it is justified," he says. Is he optimistic that things will change for the better? He pauses for a long time before answering. "I'm not discouraged," he finally says. "There's a big difference. I'm convinced we're going to get there."
He smiles and tells me a story that he says will illustrate something about his world view. Last week he was in a little village of 300 residents to inaugurate a kindergarten. The minute he stepped out of the car someone stuck a microphone in his face and said, "What about the walls?" "I said, 'Look at all the olive trees around you. The youngest tree is older than the wall.' And the mere fact that this event was about children and the future was the most positive of ironies. [It] was the most positive day of my life as prime minister—notwithstanding the miserable context in which all this is taking place."
Linda Bird Francke is a frequent traveler to the Middle East and is a former editor at NEWSWEEK.
© 2008
Loading Menu
Member Comments
Posted By: LIKEITIS @ 05/06/2008 1:46:52 PM
Comment: ???Our Dreams Are Dead??? AKA: I CAN'T STOP HITTING MYSELF IN THE HEAD WITH THIS HAMMER, SO IT MUST BE SOMEONE ELSE'S FAULT!
FACTS
# 1) THE PRESENTLY WORLD ACCEPTED AUTHORITY IS THE U.N.
#2) THE U.N. ACCEPTS THE EXISTENCE OF ISRAEL
#3) THE WALL WAS PUT UP AS A METHOD OF GENTLY STOPPING TERRORISM
#4) THE WALL HAS WORKED IN STOPPING THE MAJORITY OF "IN ISRAEL" BOMBINGS
#5) THERE IS NO PLACE ACCEPTED BY THE U.N. AS PALESTINE
#6) THE PEOPLE LIVING IN GAZA AND THE WEST BANK VOTED FOR HAMAS AND THEREFORE ARE ALIGNED WITH A WORLD ACCEPTED TERRORIST ORGANIZATION.
#7) WHEN A PERSON IS SHOT OR KILLED IN THESE AREAS, THIER WEAPON IS DROPPED AND THEN PICKED UP FOR IT'S VALUE, THEN THE DEAD ONE (CLAD IN CIVILIAN CLOTHING, AGAINST GENIEVA CONVENTION) LOOKS IDENTICAL TO A NONCOMBATANT.
#8) ANY HUMAN BEING FEEDING AND HEALING OR PROVIDING THE COMFORTS OF HOME ARE ALSO PROVIDING ASSISTANCE AND ARE THERFORE ALSO ENEMY COMBATANTS.
#9) WHEN A COUNTRY, VOTES AS A MAJORITY TO ELECT A TERRORIST GROUP AS THIER GOVERMENT, THEY ARE A TERRORIST COUNTRY OR ENTITY AND MUST BE EXPECTED TO REAP THAT PARTIULAR WIRLWIND.
#10) ANYONE BUYING THE PREMISS THATA COUNTRY THAT IS ALMOST ENTIREY NON PRODUCING AND LIVING ON THE GENEROSITY OF THE REST OF THE WORLD IS IN ANY WAY DEPRIVED IS EITHER INSANE OR ONE OF THOSE WANTING MORE CHARITY
#11) ULTIMATELY, THERE IS NO CHANCE THAT THE ISRAELIS WILL EVER BE REMOVED FROM THIER LEGALLY HELD LAND, IF IRAN OR ANY MUSLIM THEOCRACY DID EVER GET ENOUGH POWER TO DO THIS, THE HOLY LANDS(AND I SAY THAT WITH ALL DUE DISRESPECT) WOULD QUICKLY BECOME IRRADIATED AND UNINHABITABLE FOR CENTURIES AND JUSTLY SO!
Posted By: getzel @ 05/03/2008 9:06:13 AM
Comment: A picture of Mohammad and they riot like mad dogs.
Continuous suicide murder in the name of Islime, and not a peep.
They are all terrorist murder supporters.
Intelligence analyst: Getzel
Posted By: getzel @ 05/03/2008 9:03:26 AM
Comment: There are no Jews in Gaza or in West Bank Arab towns.
Linda Bird Francke, the articles writer,
is a terrorist murderer. In the Sharia terrorist enclaves: the West Bank and Gaza;
Israel only targets ticking bombs people and their handlers.
Linda Bird Francke
knows there are that many ticking bombs people being intercepted.
Linda Bird Francke knows that the wall is only there to stop ticking bombs people from shattering dreams of the ticking bombers/murders targets.
Write your problems down in detail Mr Palisteinan;
no freedom of speech in Israel? No, that is not it you have that ???
No freedom of worship in Israel; no, you have that.
No Moslem representatives freely elected in the Knesset in Israel; no, you have that.
no private property rights in Israel; no you have that.
No business ownership in Israel; no you have that.
No Sharia law: where Moslems have the just mentioned rights, non-Moslems have none of those rights and live as dhimmy: BINGO.
Sharia people are at war with The West because Sharia people believe Islam can not survive against: a free market economy with free speech to criticize Islam, representative Republic.
no such thing as "moderate Islam".... As Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan said
The governments of the world led by the USA and international law, have defined a set of war rule parameters that guarantee no war can be won by good guys and that guarantee nice long lasting wars with lots of weapons sales.
Arab, if only Israel: is only an excuse, propaganda, for Islamic terror; as we see that wherever the Mohammedans bump against another culture the Mohammedans say the same thing they say about Israel. In India: same thing, in Kosovo: same thing, In Israel: same thing. In Darfur: same thing. In Thailand: same thing, the Philippines: same thing. Wherever the Moslems are contiguous with another people: The Moslems say the same thing they say about Israel:
If only: Sharia and no freedom of speech to criticize Islam
Which part of their statements: we only want an Islamic terror state dedicated to the destruction of the West do you not understand?
Linda Bird Francke, this articles writer, is an Al Qaeda operative.
Linda Bird Francke favors suicide murder as a battle tactic against the West.
Linda Bird Francke is Tokyo Rose.
Mosque = No tolerance for non Moslems
Mosque = Non Moslems must be killed or converted.
Mosque = No freedom of speech to criticize islam.
Mosque = terrorist recruitment center: ground zero
Mosque = suicide murderers.