Sharon has subverted the whole process by turning it into something sequential and conditional and, of course, by making himself the interpreter of the road map.
Hanan AshrawiHamas played the negative opposition, in a sense, because it formed an alternative source of power without any mandate from the people. Now, Hamas has that mandate and it wants to form a national unity government. I say, let them form a government and let them accept the fact that they will have opposition.
Hanan AshrawiWhen you have a nation that is suffering collectively from a situation of injustice - of violence, of imprisonment and closure and checkpoints, from a sense of vulnerability and of hopelessness - attitudes are going to be affected by these measures.
Hanan AshrawiFor decades, since the mid-twentieth century, the nationalist movement, and Fatah in particular, has dominated the political scene. Palestinian politics were primarily nationalistic, secular. Now, suddenly we are seeing the election of a religious party with extreme political ideologies and with a social agenda that seems inconsistent with the cultural heritage of the Palestinian people.
Hanan Ashrawi