One by one, the Palestinian visitors entered the sukkah at the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's official residence last Wednesday. They entered cautiously and hesitantly, noting the decorative Israeli flags closing in on them from all sides. They promptly underwent an accelerated course in Judaism, as Olmert explained the four plant species used in the Sukkot rituals. The pictures, they knew, would certainly not improve their standing among the Palestinian public. As an experienced, veteran guest, Saeb Erekat, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization negotiating team, strategically avoided the Government Press Office camera.

This week, at his bureau in Jericho, Erekat continued to react with disingenuous amazement to the "kaffiyeh incident" at the Madrid conference 16 years ago - an event which singlehandedly brought him to the Israel public's attention.

"At the Madrid conference, there were some other people from the Gulf, all of them wearing kaffiyehs. Why did they make such a fuss specifically about my kaffiyeh?" he asks with a smile. He pauses, the smile vanishes and Erekat again adopts the expression of a negotiator. "I appeared at the negotiations in a kaffiyeh intentionally," he says, "to show those people in Israel who thought it was possible to eradicate my identity and to argue that there is no such thing as Palestinians."

At the age of 52, Dr. Saeb Erekat (Abu Ali) has 13 years of experience in negotiations with Israel. It seems he has always been part of the diplomatic scene, although it was only in 2003 that he was officially appointed head of the PLO negotiating team. On Arab television channels, he has won the nickname qabir al mufwadin, "the greatest of the negotiators." No one in the PA or Israel can compete with his negotiating experience.

Prime Minister's Bureau officials tend to scorn him, as he is considered dramatic. But there have been six prime ministers in Israel since 1994 - and Erekat is still here. An Israeli journalist who has been following his work says that while the Israeli negotiating team stands out for its lack of experience, Erekat has attended every summit, discussion and debate with Israel.

"Without him, it would be possible to start the talks from nothing," says the journalist. "No one apart from Erekat remembers or knows what happened in the past in talks between the two sides."

During the past two weeks, with the generous help of a number of his Palestinian political rivals, rumors have spread of his dismissal and the appointment of former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qureia (Abu Ala) as head of the Palestinian negotiating team. Qureia accompanied Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) on his recent trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York, while Erekat stayed home in Jericho.

Erekat tries not to sound insulted. "I read in the papers about Abu Ala's appointment to the position," he says, "but the negotiating team also comprises Yasser Abed Rabbo, [PA Prime Minister Salam] Fayad, Akram Haniyeh, myself and of course Abu Mazen. I have no problem with the makeup of the team and I will continue with my work. The media were hasty in publishing inaccurate reports."

Why didn't you go to New York?

"I was supposed to go, but it was decided that I would stay here to conduct the contacts with Israel. For me, the position or the status doesn't matter. I am here, on the job, to prevent my son from becoming a suicide terrorist."

On Saturday, Erekat did come with Abbas to the meeting in the sukkah (this time without a kaffiyeh) and proved that his dismissal was not on the agenda. However, despite the repeated denials, at the end of the visit Erekat had to acknowledge that Qureia would head the Palestinian negotiating team.

In conversation, Erekat shifts between optimism that sounds exaggerated to caution that seems unnecessary. "To date, there has been no agreement between Abbas and Olmert," he says. "Right at the start of the talks between them, it was decided that there would be no notes taken, documentation or papers. Therefore it is necessary to ignore all the reports there have been until now about papers and agreements between the sides. Nothing has been concluded between the leaders on any of the points of dispute. There is not even a date for the summit in the United States and we don't know who will be invited to it."

You have said countless times that the negotiating stage is finished and the time has come for decisions. If there aren't any agreements, how is it possible the negotiations have ended?

"The negotiations really have reached their end. It is more or less clear to both sides how the final status agreement will look. Abbas and Olmert understand that the region is at a critical juncture. Either we go the route of peace, stability and security or the route of escalation, extremism and conflict. When I am with them, I see that these are two determined and intelligent leaders who realize it is not possible to maintain the current status quo. Both of them realize that the summit will help them determine the path and will determine their ability to produce an agreement. If the summit fails, the entire region is liable to take the path of extremism and escalation. We made so many mistakes in the past in conducting the negotiations; the Palestinians and the Israelis are already tired of talks and they want to see results. It is possible to resolve all the issues that are in dispute: refugees, Jerusalem, Jewish settlements in the territories, borders. Will this happen? I don't know. But what I do know is that the two leaders can bring about a peace agreement and more importantly, they also want an agreement. They are courageous and well-aware of their political limitations."

There are quite a number of people who would disagree with you and say that neither of them is able to, because of their political limitations.

"If Abu Mazen and Olmert succeed in bringing about a peace agreement between the two peoples, they will become the most important people to walk the streets of Jerusalem since Jesus Christ."

Gaza will be returned

Even after Wednesday's meeting between Olmert and Abbas, it is still unclear where the negotiations are heading. Haaretz has reported that the summit is expected to be postponed in light of the large gap between the sides. The United States announced about two weeks ago that it supports Israel's position to the effect that at the end of the summit only a joint statement will be issued and not an agreement on principles.

On the Palestinian side, there is concern that the meeting in Annapolis, Maryland, will become a rare opportunity for Israel to renew its diplomatic contacts with Arab countries that cut contact at the start of the current intifada and the PA will emerge the loser. Without a major achievement, Fatah and Abbas' popularity in the territories will dwindle even more.

The Palestinian demands, perhaps like any opening shot in any negotiation, sound almost ridiculous. The PA chairman explained at the beginning of the week that he would not accept only 92 percent of the West Bank, as had been offered in the Clinton proposal of 2000. Moreover, the Palestinians will demand the Arab parts of the Old City of Jerusalem and not only one Palestinian neighborhood or another in East Jerusalem, while "the right of return," in Abbas' view, is a natural right that only the Palestinian refugees themselves can decide whether or not to concede. And they aren't even talking about the Temple Mount at this stage.

Beyond that, the PA will demand that a new international force be established in the region to supervise the implementation of the agreements between the sides and to advance the negotiations, a demand Israel will reject out of hand. At least on one issue agreement has been reached: After the summit in November, talks on the final status agreement are supposed to start. Erekat refuses to evince even a trace of pessimism.

"In 1965, Jordan and Saudi Arabia exchanged territories, in the framework of a border adjustment, that are equivalent in size to the area between the Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea. On a single day, with hardly any discussion. The negotiating teams are now beginning the talks between them, after five meetings between Abu Mazen and Olmert. This means that that there is significant progress and there is something to discuss."

He recalls almost with longing the negotiations he conducted prior to the elections to the Palestinian parliament in 1996. Only a few years earlier, at the Madrid conference, his membership in Fatah became public knowledge - although he secretly joined the organization at the young age of 12. After 1991, he reached the upper echelons of Palestinian politics, mostly thanks to his patron Yasser Arafat, who used to call him affectionately "the Satan from Jericho."

"The talks with the Israelis about the elections are what I am most proud of. Today, too, I think that democracy, transparency and the rule of law are the necessary elements for Palestinian national survival. However, the low point of my career was the revolution in Gaza last June."

What will you be able to do in a Gaza Strip under Hamas even if you reach an agreement?

"If we have an agreement that includes an independent Palestinian state, with its capital Jerusalem, within less than 24 hours, without a single shot fired, Gaza will not be under Hamas control. Do you think that anyone is going to wait for Ismail Haniyeh to determine his position with respect to a comprehensive peace agreement? However, if the negotiations fail, the West Bank will also be in danger."

A piece of the pie

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad could at long last enjoy his position last week. He toured New York, met with leaders from around the globe and experienced what it is like to be a man of the world. Now, however, with his return to Ramallah, he will have to deal with Fatah officials who continue to see him as an outsider who has taken over their assets. Senior members of the organization are urging Fayad, not a member of Fatah, to bring members of the movement into his government.

"It is untenable," they say, "that at a time of such harsh political rivalry with Hamas, not a single one of the key positions in the government is in Fatah hands."

Every few days, senior officials in the movement come to Fayad's office and lobby him to change the makeup of the government. On one occasion, even Abbas' close associate, Tayib Abed al Rahim, turned to Fayad and asked him to bring members of the organization into the government.

Abbas takes care not to quarrel with Fayad. The relations between the two are for all intents and purposes excellent. However, the first cracks are already beginning to show, in part concerning the negotiations. Fayad, who initially attended the talks with Israel, did not come to the meeting with Olmert last Wednesday, has cut off his connection with the diplomatic contacts and has sent his bureau chief, Saidi al Krunz, to the talks. In the past, he made no secret of his approach to prioritize domestic issues, efforts which are unlikely to bear fruit for quite a while.

The explosion is likely to come, as always, in the wake of political issues. Fayad's insistence on an ostensibly independent, non-partisan government looks to some top Fatah people like exploitation of Abbas and Fatah. While the PA chairman granted Fayad his position, the prime minister's people, many of whom have been appointed to senior positions, are engaged in preparations for the next elections and the establishment of a new political party that will compete with Fatah. If Fayad persists in his refusal to bring Fatah into the government, he might well personally experience the ability of the senior people in the organization to initiate an intifada, this time a political one.