dr. fayyad as a distinguished statesman at the council. general jones is the chairman, as i said, of the scowcroft center, former national security adviser, supreme allied commander europe and marine commandant. he's been a great partner to the atlantic council, integral to the work of the scowcroft center over the past few years but really the work across the atlantic council on a wide set of issues. general jones, the podium is yours. >> thank you, fred. and ladies and gentlemen, welcome. this is a high moment for the atlantic council, and we are honored to be here today. and it's especially exciting for me to be able to introduce dr. salam fayyad who i came to know and admire as a leader and statesman and colleague while working with him on the peace process now six years ago when i served as special envoy for the middle east regional security during 2007 and 2008. and my friend steve hadley was the national security adviser. i think jane harman was still in office and the world was a different place. i think of all the two years that i

dr. fayyad, thank you for that. some in israel would say and let's come to the present tense, the situation on the ground. some in israel would say to break the cycle is to defeat. hamas once and for all to ensure its safety. that's exactly what michael orrin argued in "the washington post" recently. last week at the aspen security forum, lieutenant general michael flynn, head of the dia warned if hamas is totally defeated in the current round of fighting, it's likely that a more extreme group would rise in its place. i'd like to know your vision on this. and i know your job is not to advise the israeli government, but what would your advice be to the israeli government in this sense? you know, you see the popularity figures of what's going on right now of netanyahu rising. so first this question of what replaces hamas would be more extreme. this tension between say what ambassador orrin said and the head of the dia. and secondly, if you were sitting in a room advising the israel government, what would you say to th

dr. fayyad here. it's good seeing jane harman and many board members throughout, thank you for being here. let me start by drilling down on what you were saying. you were essentially saying we don't have the representation, right, we don't have the framework right. essentially. >> yeah. >> could you tell us what should the representation be, what should the framework be? >> there's more than -- i hope this is okay. can you hear? >> yeah. >> there is really a very complicated problem here. on the one hand, you know, the oslo accords were signed on to by the plo acting on behalf of all palestinians. and those accords involved early on. and that was the declaration of mutual recognition presented to the palestinian people. and that defined the process. and that defined the palestinian counterpart. and as i said, that point in time onward, this is the criterion by which the plo was to be judged, the extent to it was not supposed to be successful in delivering freedom to the palestinian people and palestin