Was there any talk of how the Abbas government intends to retake control of Gaza?
SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: There was some discussion of Gaza — of the situation in Gaza, from a law-and-order point of view; of the Palestinian public in Gaza and its views of its own situation: How does one judge that? How does one determine what the public reaction is in Gaza to the takeover, what the Palestinians have called a coup d’etat by Hamas? And there was some discussion of how — since this is an extremely difficult problem, how they would solve it in the context of the broader effort at Palestinian statehood. Q Is that going to put a roadblock in the way of that two-state solution, or are you just going to sort of ignore it for a while? SENIOR ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, the two-state solution doesn’t come in a matter of weeks anyway. It’s a process that requires, starting with the November meeting, further meetings, further negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians. And it requires implementation on the ground, too. That’s why the Palestinians are working
