This Side of Peace,
p.178-9
by Hanan Ashrawi
Saeb Erekat, the
nemesis of James Baker, was Nabeel [Kassis]'s foil. He would cast before you
his hoard of words and expect you to do the selecting and ordering. A political
creature by instinct, he actually enjoyed games of intrigue and political
virtuosity, particularly when challenged to pit his wits against others.
"Do we play this dirty or clean?" He would ask Akram, his mentor and
friend to whom he gave the loyalty he bestowed on no one other than Abu Ammar
[Arafat]. Big, burly and brash, he would charge first and rationalize later.
"There are two misleading characters on this delegation," I once
said. "Faisal [Husseini] is not as innocent as he looks and Saeb is not as
mean as he looks." Actually Saeb was extremely vulnerable, despite his
blustering show of bravado and his bushy beard. Only people he cared for could
really hurt him; the others he would either attack mercilessly or simply
ignore. But even when hurt, he put up a brave, often macho, front. During one
famous meeting in which the delegation defied Abu Ammar and announced its
intention to boycott the talks, the chairman lashed out at Saeb as someone on
whom he felt he could vent his wrath. Saeb was devastated, and it took a lot of
persuasion to reconcile him. Yet when Abu Ammar and Faisal created and repeated
the joke about Saeb's memoirs, he reacted in good humor and a positive spirit.
Saeb was reported as having announced that if Abu Ammar were to take the
decision to go back to the talks, he would withdraw and write his memoirs. When
he showed up the next day, someone asked him, "What about your
memoirs?" and Abu Ammar answered, "He finished them overnight! What
he has to put down on record wouldn't take long to write." Sometimes he
would embellish the joke by adding, "I looked at the memoirs and they're
all blank pages!"
It was Saeb who
always volunteered to help me with my heavy carry-on bag from one airport to
another. But he was also not beyond resorting to public displays of bad temper.
The first to take offence, he was also the first to forget a slight. When he
was assigned the task of coordinating with the other Arab delegations at
membership level, he threw himself into it with a great deal of devotion and no
small amount of game playing. He had found his platform. After the signing of
the Declaration of Principles, and when skepticism among the "inside"
Palestinians prevailed, he agreed to head the delegation that was to conduct
negotiations on self-government to be held in Washington. Abu Ammar also
appointed him head of the official committee charged with preparing for
elections. The outcome of both tasks would remain dubious. Saeb's previous
academic work at Al-Najah University and his editorial work at Al-Quds
newspaper would, in all probability, remain in the realm of the past. When the
Palestinian National Authority was formed in 1994, Saeb joined it as minister
for local government. He remains one of Abu Ammar's most loyal supporters.