the israelis have their differences with abu mazen. part of the problem -- what i didn't say before in answer to your question, walter, we have this -- we have a major psychological gap between the two sides and particularly the leaders. abu mazen believes there is no deal and why even get into negotiations with them. he interpreted it as something designed to undercut him. prime minister netanyahu looks at abu mazen and says you impose conditions on me that you impose on none of my predecessors. you're prepared to talk to a lot of israelis, and not to me. it looks like you're trying to discredit me and embark internationally on an approach designed to isolate israel. so each of them has sort of cemented psychologically their view of the other that colors how they see the substance and it's very hard to break through that, and i was saying before, the jordanians are making an effort with the support of the quartet to break that. that's an effort worth applauding and i think it has some potential, but whether it succeeds or it doesn't,

is abu mazen ready today to do a final deal? look at the context he's operating in. he looks around the region. who are his friends among the arab leaders? where are their preoccupations? with the muslim brotherhood rising, are they particularly interested in a deal between israelis and palestinians? maybe their preoccupation is internal, but the fact is if abu mazen tries to do a big deal right now, inevitably he has to make compromises. there's no such thing in trying to do a deal without compromise. does he feel confident given the current context that if he makes the kind of compromise that's required, he's also having to concede something as well and is that context the context where he's going to feel confident that he'll not face enormous opposition. so -- the reason i don't want to give up on trying is because i think you ought to test that proposition. i say this is a time for humility. those who say either that they know that each side can't take these big steps or that they can't take these big steps, i say i can understand the difficulty of this and we ou

. >> on the palestinian question, we just always talk about abu mazen, but i was wondering if you believe that there will be elections, do you see anybody that perhaps would have the credibility within the palestinian base and also possibly with the israelis to eventually cut a deal, and i'm wondering if you have a repeat of 2006, the palestinian elections and hamas does make a good showing, would you recommend repeating the same course of action that the u.s. and the international community did which was to boycott hamas because my personal feeling -- >> i just don't feel that they were given the opportunity to show whether they would govern or whether they would moderate because you, in effect they were backed into a corner and we never knew. so i understand there are these quartet red lines and i'm just wondering if you would make any changes to that approach? thank you. >> we're asking two different questions. one question that relates to who being emerge in elections on the palestinian side individually in term of the presidency and then the other is you know, in a sense which moveme

in the palestinian question we used to always talk about abu mazen but i was wondering if in fact you believe that there will be elections, do you see anybody that perhaps would have the credibility within the palestinian base and also possibly with the israelis to eventually cut a deal and i'm wondering if you have a repeat of 2006, the palestinian elections and hamas does make a good showing, would you recommend repeating the same course of action that the u.s. and the international community did which was to boycott hamas because my personal feeling -- i mean i just don't feel they were even given the opportunity to show whether they would govern or whether they would moderate. in effect they were backed into a corner and we never knew so i understand there are these kind of quartet red-lined that i was just wondering if you would make any changes to that approach? thank you. >> you are asking two different questions. one question relates to who could emerge in elections on the palestinian side individually in terms of the presidency and the other is you know, if in a sense which m