salam fayyad to the podium. >> thank you so much. thank you. thank you very much, george jones. thank you for the very kind introduction. thank you. and i thank you ladies and gentlemen for the interest you have taken attending this event which i had hoped or wished would happen against different backdrop. relative to what we all are looking at. completely tragic situation in terms of the horror that has been going on for long 25 days, past 25 days. the destruction we're talking about since the event was prepared for, more than 1400 people, including many, many children. more than 8,000 wounded. many today are in life-threatening situation. made even more life threatening given the very poor conditions in the gaza strip and health care facilities. in addition to damage to infrastructure, housing, 300,000 people displaced. this is the extent of the damage and tragedy that's been unfolding for the past 25 days and counting. with unfortunately not there being the prospect in the immediate future of a cease-fire. of course, i hope i'm wrong on this. and we've been all following this

. >> i have to make a disclosure that i had the opportunity to have lunch with salam fayyad, and i'd like to invite you to share a little bit of that conversation, and i realize there are some sensitive pieces to it. the reason i say that is because i think there's a lot of despair in the united states that the current situation in gaza can lead anywhere positive. and i think it's useful if you could share some thoughts about that both to give some hope but also to stimulate some thinking. and i'm thinking specifically some comments you made about the kind of cease-fire that might allow both what the israelis want, which is the demilitarization of hamas and what might allow hamas to get what it wants, which is the opening of the borders for flows of goods and services. you talked a little bit about that. what kind of arrangement might permit that. the role that the p.a. might play in that. and also, the issue of reconstruction of gaza and how that might be structured in such a way that actually could begin not just a reconstruction process but a reform process that could begin to do