A Talk With Prime Minister Fayyad

It worked. We started in the most difficult city, Nablus. Poor morale, poor performance. At the same time, you really cannot wait until you get it fixed to begin to provide security service. Security is the most basic of all services.

President Abu Mazen [ Mahmoud Abbas] and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert are conducting peace talks. Is anything going to happen?

They have not proceeded at a pace that's consistent to obtain the objectives set forth at Annapolis. . . . Annapolis set in motion two tracks. The second . . . talks about the need to immediately implement phase one of road map obligations. People forget about that. It's important to me because it preserves the possibility of a two-state solution.

How do the Americans feel about that?

This document was agreed to in 2003. It was about governance, institution building and security.

How do you unite Gaza and the West Bank again? How do you get rid of Hamas?

My starting point is not to get rid of anyone. We have to be accepting of political pluralism.

Is it a democracy when people are shelling Israel?

As soon as there is acceptance by everyone, including Hamas, that there is one authority here and it is the sole address for weapons, there can be a resolution to our conflict. Ultimately our people have to see things for what they are and move away from empty slogans that have brought us nothing but complete calamities. The reason we slid into this complete chaos in Gaza is not so much because there was political disagreement but because there was a channel through which political disagreement or discord translated into disaster and that is militias, outside the purview of the Palestinian Authority.

If they keep shelling Israel, won't the Israelis go into Gaza?

The cycle of violence definitely has to stop. We cannot go on like this. I spoke out publicly against violence from Gaza. Also, we spoke publicly against the disproportionate Israeli response . . . the massive casualties.

It's not really a cycle of violence. It's people in Gaza shelling Israel.

I do not want to be less than 100 percent clear on this. We are against violence from Gaza.

Is it a problem or an advantage for you that you are not in Fatah?

I don't think it really is a plus for someone to be in politics without a party.

Do you want to join?

If I did not become a party man when I was younger, I'm not going to do that now. What I want to do is to give our people a sense of hope and possibility. That's what I want more than anything else. You want your people who are down but not out to begin to think, We can do this. What I really want is to rekindle some sense of ability and capacity . . . . . . Israel itself was not established in 1948, it was declared in 1948. It had the institutions of state before 1948. And that's what I want to do.