His campus politicking notwithstanding, Erekat had in mind for himself a career in academics. After returning home in 1979, he got a teaching job at An-Najah National University at Nablus on the West Bank but soon won a scholarship to a doctoral program at England’s University of Bradford. He settled in at the university’s respected Department of Peace Studies, picking conflict resolution as the subject of his Ph.D. He said it was here that he became convinced that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would end only through peaceful means.
(emphasis mine)
It is true that the negotiations continued for many years, but don’t you know that President Yasser Arafat was besieged in Camp David and was killed unjustly, only because he adhered to Jerusalem, and because he refused to let the Israeli measures on the ground give rise to any [Israeli] right or any [Palestinian] obligation? The Palestinian negotiators could have given in in 1994, 1998, or 2000, and too months ago, brother Abu Mazen could have accepted a proposal that talked about Jerusalem and almost 100% of the West Bank, but it is not our goal to score points against one another here. Our strategic goal, when we strive for peace, is not to do so at any price. We strive for peace on the basis of an Israeli withdrawal to the June 4, 1967 borders, the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with East Jerusalem as its capital, and with the West Bank and the Gaza Strip geographically connected.
[…]
There will be no peace whatsoever unless East Jerusalem – with every single stone in it – becomes the capital of Palestine.
[…]
In my family, we are seven siblings. My six brothers and sisters are in the diaspora. But this does not deny them the right to inherit this land. Ten million Palestinians own Palestine, just like I do. Our survival and steadfastness on this land, our wresting of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders, with East Jerusalem as its capital – this is what we can achieve in our generation.
I don’t know if Erakat asked the University of Bradford for a refund, because he clearly still has a lot to learn about conflict resolution. Still, for some reason, plenty of folks consider him an authoritative voice of Palestinian moderation.
In his report Palestinians Discouraged by Meeting’s Outcome , Howard Schneider uses Erakat to show that the meeting between President Obama and PM Netanyahu was a failure.
“There is a difference between being a tough negotiator and a non-negotiator. What I heard today was a non-negotiator,” said Erekat, who added that Palestinians had been looking for Monday’s meeting to produce some sense of progress — whether a statement from Netanyahu about the restriction of settlements or on the establishment of a Palestinian state.
“He says that he wants me to govern myself by myself. I have one simple question: How can I do that when roadblocks are suffocating us in towns and refugee camps? When the army makes incursions wherever they want? When the demolition of homes continues?” Erekat said.
This frustration about Netanyahu being a “non-negotiator” is ironic form someone who claims that no compromise is possible unless his full demands are met. (Incidentally, despite the plural in the title, Erakat is the only Palestinian quoted.)
Erakat also makes an appearance in Cheryl Gay Stolberg’s account Obama Tells Netanyahu He Has an Iran Timetable in the New York Times.
The chief negotiator for the Palestinians, Saeb Erakat, said afterward that the Palestinians welcomed Mr. Obama’s remarks as a sign of “the active re-engagement of the United States†in the Middle East peace effort.
Mr. Erakat criticized Mr. Netanyahu for failing to endorse the two-state solution, saying he had “missed another opportunity to show himself to be a genuine partner for peace.â€
Again coming from someone who has expressed no interest in compromise, this criticism is rather ironic.
The New York Times also quotes Aaron David Miller who seems to have learned the art of the soundbite.
Mr. Miller, the former Middle East negotiator, characterized the session as “President ‘Yes We Can’ sitting down with Prime Minister ‘No You Won’t.’ â€
How did Miller’s last job in negotiating work out? Oh that’s right, Arafat walked out of Camp David rejecting Ehud Barak’s offer listening to Erakat’s advice. I guess being an authority on peace negotiations means never having actually accomplished anything.
It does seem though that like a number of us predicted, there was no major conflict between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu.
Crossposted on Soccer Dad.
