From the Shadows to Center Stage

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For someone often derided for his passivity, Abbas, 69, has also been willing to mix it up. Born in Safed, a town now part of Israel, he grew up in Damascus after his family fled when the Jewish state was founded in 1948. As a young member of Fatah, Arafat's faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization (P.L.O.), he made his name as a fund raiser while avoiding involvement in the group's terrorist attacks. He was among the first Fatah leaders to build bridges to Israeli peace campaigners and in 1977 issued a declaration in favor of a two-state solution, a break from P.L.O. doctrine, which called for the eradication of the Jewish state. Abbas' ties with Israeli officials made him a key Palestinian architect of the secret negotiations that produced the Oslo peace accord in 1993. Even Sharon, who denounced that deal, saw in Abbas a man he could do business with. Seven years ago, Sharon, who was then Infrastructure Minister, invited Abbas to Sycamores Farm, his ranch in the Negev desert. Abbas was the first P.L.O. official Sharon ever met.

But Abbas has also invited suspicion. As a student at the Institute of Oriental Studies in Moscow, he turned in a dissertation, published as a book in Jordan in 1984, that accused the postwar Zionist movement of inflating the number of Jewish Holocaust victims for political gain. While many Israelis say the book amounts to a denial of the Holocaust, Abbas' defenders point to the passage in which Abbas calls the Holocaust a "crime that the civilized world ... and humanity cannot accept."

Like few other Palestinian politicians, Abbas staked out his independence from Arafat, condemning the intifadeh and pushing for reform of the corruption-plagued Palestinian Authority. In March 2003, at the behest of the Bush Administration, Arafat appointed Abbas as Prime Minister. Six months later, Abbas quit because Arafat wouldn't cede control of the Palestinian military. Shortly before Abbas' resignation, a friend asked Abbas when he expected things to improve for the Palestinians. Abbas gestured toward Arafat's office. "When that man in there changes out of his khaki uniform," he said.

That moment has arrived--sooner, perhaps, than even he expected. But despite a promising start, Abbas still has to prove to Sharon and the U.S. that he can be as firm with the militants as he was with Arafat. Close aides say Abbas doesn't want to start a civil war, but he's ready to force Hamas to respect the authority of his government. "He's a very patient person," says Rafik Natsha, a Palestinian lawmaker and close friend. "He swallows his anger." He may have to let it out soon. --With reporting by Jamil Hamad/ Ramallah, Amany Radwan/Sharm el-Sheikh and Elaine Shannon/Washington