We need to stop Sharon. His lethal policies are drawing blood on both sides. That's why we need a serious intervention -- international troops. And we need to end the occupation if there is to be security for both people.

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.

It's not just a question of numbers. There will be more women (in parliament) who are conscious of women's rights ... There will also be women who are not committed to equality.

The priorities for the new Palestinian government is the economy. If Hamas cannot pay salaries when they form the government, there will be a collapse. People cannot afford to have that happen; there is nothing for people to fall back on. If people go hungry, there will be chaos - not just instability, but a breakdown. And there will be violence with a spillover effect. This is crucial to understand.

When 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.

We cannot rely upon the silenced to tell us they are suffering.

Hamas 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.