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Dr. Erekat said he came to the United States to ask for assistance with Palestinian legislative elections scheduled for January 25, 2006. Specifically, he asked the United States to prevent Israel from interfering in the electoral process, either by assassinating or arresting candidates or restricting voters from moving freely. American engagement is necessary to ensure that elections are transparent and fair. Erekat posited that Arab-Western relations have been plagued by a lack of definition for several centuries but should find commonality on the subject of democracy. He explained that democracy is a basic human right, and that anyone who says that Arabs are not ready for democracy is a racist.

Dr. Erekat encouraged the United States to continue to participate in the peace process and the stabilization of Gaza following parliamentary elections. Citing US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s role in opening the Rafah border terminal — which provided a semblance of freedom to the 1.3 million residents of Gaza — Dr. Erekat said he believes in the ability to infuse the process with needed energy through third-party actors. The opening of Gaza’s air and seaports will be a high priority in the near future, but Dr. Erekat advised that it would be more helpful to, “stop managing the crisis and focus on solving it.” To these ends, the United States must support renewed permanent status negotiations — shifting its policy from one of “what’s possible” to one of “what’s needed.”

With Israeli and Palestinian elections approaching and increased American involvement in the region through continuing efforts in Iraq, Dr. Erekat emphasized that the Middle East has reached a point of critical juncture. Improving circumstances in the region will necessitate the spread of democracy and a just solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict. The upcoming legislative elections prove that Palestinians have chosen “ballots over bullets,” and consequently, “whoever gets the most votes in January will rule.” Running on a platform of reconciliation, peace, and development, Erekat’s ruling Fatah Party envisions a two-state solution with peaceful relations between Israel and Palestine. These terms are acceptable as long as Palestinian land conforms to the Green Line and includes East Jerusalem as its capital. Israeli settlements must be dismantled.

Dr. Erekat continually cited the expansion of settlement blocs in the West Bank and Jerusalem as a principal obstacle to peace. “Settlements and peace don’t go together. It is either settlements or peace.” He pointed out that the Roadmap for Peace, developed by the Quartet, explicitly calls for the freezing of all settlement activity, and that Israel is in violation of the agreement.

Dr. Erekat also addressed concerns that Mahmud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are too weak to disarm militants and maintain order. In response, he pointed to the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat, who had been similarly criticized as being a hindrance to the establishment of security and the advancement of peace. Arafat’s death in November of 2004 has done little to change circumstances, a point that Dr. Erekat believes is illustrative of Israel’s tendency to create scapegoats rather than cooperate. To drive home his point, Dr. Erekat hypothesized, “If Mother Teresa were our prime minister, Thomas Jefferson our president, Montesquieu our speaker, and give Mahatma Ghandi my job… you would still find a way to link us to terror and say we weren’t doing enough.”