Saeb Erekat sometimes doesn’t feel like lying (but does it anyway)
I have a feeling that this exchange, released in Al Jazeera’s Palestine Papers, is going to be making the rounds in Ramallah for some time. "SE" is chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, and "YG" is Yossi Gal, then a deputy director general in Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. SE: How have you been? YG: Not ...
I have a feeling that this exchange, released in Al Jazeera's Palestine Papers, is going to be making the rounds in Ramallah for some time. "SE" is chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, and "YG" is Yossi Gal, then a deputy director general in Israel's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
I have a feeling that this exchange, released in Al Jazeera’s Palestine Papers, is going to be making the rounds in Ramallah for some time. "SE" is chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, and "YG" is Yossi Gal, then a deputy director general in Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
SE: How have you been?
YG: Not too bad, can’t complain, how about you?
SE: I’m lying, I’ve been lying for the last weeks.
YG: Between jogging?
SE: No, no, lying, lying. I was in Cairo, I was in Jordan, I was in America. Everybody is asking me what is going on Israel, what is Olmert going to do?
YG: And you are telling everyone we are on the verge of success.
SE: And I always tell them this is an internal Israeli matter, a domestic Israeli matter and I keep lying. If somebody sneezes in Tel-Aviv, I get the flu in Jericho, and I have to lie. So that’s my last week — all lies.
YG: As a professor of negotiations, you know that white lies are allowed now and then.
SE: I’m not complaining, I’m admitting — and sometimes I don’t feel like lying.
David Kenner was Middle East editor at Foreign Policy from 2013-2018.
More from Foreign Policy

Chinese Hospitals Are Housing Another Deadly Outbreak
Authorities are covering up the spread of antibiotic-resistant pneumonia.

Henry Kissinger, Colossus on the World Stage
The late statesman was a master of realpolitik—whom some regarded as a war criminal.

The West’s False Choice in Ukraine
The crossroads is not between war and compromise, but between victory and defeat.

The Masterminds
Washington wants to get tough on China, and the leaders of the House China Committee are in the driver’s seat.