Mahmoud Abbas

Mahmoud Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, was born in Safad in 1935. When he was 13, he left for Syria to become a teacher, and eventually earned a law degree from Damascus University. From there he travelled to Moscow, earning his doctorate in History at Oriental University. There he met many anti-Zionist factions who believed that the Jews were bent on world domination. He wrote his doctoral thesis on connections between certain Zionist groups and the Nazis. He is somewhat of a Holocaust revisionist, believing that the Jews overstated their losses for their own personal gain, although he has tempered his beliefs (or rather, made them less public) since his university days.

Upon graduating, he began working in Qatar's government as a personnel director and began forming groups whose goals were centered around the autonomy of Palestine. He helped found Fatah, and joined the PLO Executive Committee in 1970. Throughout the 70s he was one of the few PLO members who initiated and attended dialogues with Israel over such issues as curfews, illegal searches, and the economy. It was his talks with Matiyahu Peled that led to the "principles of peace", part of the contingent of the two-state solution issued in 1977.

In 1980, he was named the chair of the PLO Department for National and International Relations and, upon the assassination of Abu Jihad in 1988, took over as chairman of the portfolio on the Occupied Territories. In 1993, he headed the negotiating team at the now somewhat infamous Oslo accords, and it is signature at the bottom of the accord on behalf of PLO.

In 1995, Abbas returned home after 48 years in exile, settling in Ramallah, where he wrote a bestselling book narrating the events of the Oslo meeting entitled Through Secret Channels: The Road to Oslo. That same year he drafted the Abu-Mazen-Beilin plan with Israeli deputy prime minister Yossi Beilin, although the contents of the plan would not be published until 2000.

Finally, in 1996, Abbas was elected to be the secretary general of the Executive Committee, sealing his position as Yasser Arafat's second in command. In addition to this role, he served as a representative for Qalqilya in the Palestine Legislative Council, and in March of 2003 he was elected the first prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, moving along the road map to peace and giving the Middle East hope of a smooth and well-developed resolution.

Despite Abbas' position, he was not given full authority by Arafat to do as he will; most importantly, Abbas was denied several security clearances that would have helped him deal with Palestinian groups committing terrorist acts in Israel. Helpless, Abbas refused to dismantle the terrorist groups in Palestine, instead resigning just four months later. Considered too conciliatory by the Palestinians and too reluctant by the Israelis, Abbas was content to return to a more subservient and behind-the-scenes position in Palestine.

Fun Fact: Mahmoud Abbas' second name Abu Mazen comes from Muslim tradition. "Abu" means "father", and Muslims take on a second name when they have their first born son. Hence, Abbas' first child is apparently named Mazen, and thus Abu Mazen. Yasser Arafat is called Abu Amar, though he has no children.

Sources

• http://www.us-israel.org/jsource/biography/Abbas.html

محمد عباس

"There is absolutely no substitution for dialogue."

Mahmoud Abbas (born March 26, 1935), commonly known as '''Abu Mazen''' (ابو مازن), is a leading politician in Fatah. He served as Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA) from March to October 2003.

Abbas was born in Safed, in what was then the British Mandate of Palestine. After the founding of Israel and subsequent occupation of the rest of the former Mandate by Jordan and Egypt, he left for Egypt to study law. Subsequently, he entered graduate studies in Moscow, where he earned a doctorate. His doctoral thesis later became a book, ''The Other Side: the Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism'', which following his appointment as Prime Minister in 2003 was heavily criticized by some Jewish groups as an example of Holocaust denial. In an interview with Haaretz in May 2003, he claimed to have been merely quoting the wide range of scholarly disagreement over the Holocaust, but no longer harbored any desire to argue with the generally accepted figures; he further affirmed his belief that "the Holocaust was a terrible, unforgivable crime against the Jewish nation, a crime against humanity that cannot be accepted by humankind."

In the mid 1950s he became involved in underground Palestinian politics, and joined a number of exiled Palestinians in Qatar. While there, he recruited a number of people who would become key figures in the Palestine Liberation Organization, and was one of the founding members of Fatah in 1957.

Through the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, he travelled with Arafat and the rest of the PA leadership in exile to Jordan, Lebanon and Tunisia. Though he garnered little media attention, he is said to have had a powerful behind the scenes influence on the Palestinian Authority, and was widely regarded as a highly intellectual pragmatist. In particular, he is credited with initiating secretive contacts with left-wing and pacifist Jewish groups during the 1970s and 80s, and is considered by many to be a major architect of the 1993 Oslo peace accords (evidenced in part by the fact that he traveled with Arafat to the White House to sign the accords).

Though generally considered a moderate peace advocate, he has nonetheless been charged with involvement in terrorism: Someone alleged that Abbas funded the terrorism against the Israeli Olympic athletes in 1972. However, the charge hasn't been corroborated by others.

By early 2003, as both Israel and the United States had indicated their refusal to negotiate with Yasser Arafat, Abbas began to emerge as a candidate for a more visible leadership role. As one of the few remaining founding members of Fatah, he had some degree of credibility within the Palestinian cause, and his candidacy was bolstered by the fact that other high-profile Palestinians were for various reasons not suitable (the most notable, Marwan Bargouti, was under arrest in an Israel jail). Abbas's reputation as a pragmatist garnered him favor with the international community and certain elements of the Palestinian legislature, and pressure was soon brought on Arafat to appoint him Prime Minister. Arafat did so on March 19, 2003; initially Arafat attempted to eviscerate the post of Prime Minister, but eventually was forced to give Abbas some degree of real power.

However, the rest of Abbas's term as Prime Minister continued to be characterized by numerous conflicts between him and Arafat over the distribution of power between the two. Abbas had often hinted he would resign if not given more control over the PA's administration. In early September 2003 he confronted the PA parliament over this issue. The United States and Israel accuse Arafat of constantly undermining Abbas and his government.

In addition, Abbas came into conflict with Palestinian terrorist groups, notably Islamic Jihad and Hamas; his moderate pragmatic policies were diametrically opposed to their hard-line approach. Initially he pledged not to use force against the militants, in the interest of avoiding a civil war, and instead attempted negotiation. This was partially successful, resulting in a pledge from the two groups to honor a Palestinian cease-fire. However, an August 19, 2003 suicide bombing that killed 20 Israelis, for which Islamic Jihad and Hamas claimed joint responsibility, forced Abbas to pledge a crackdown in order to uphold the Palestinian Authority's side of the Road Map for Peace. This led to a power struggle with Arafat over control of the Palestinian security services; Arafat refused to release control to Abbas, thus preventing him from using them in a crackdown on militants.

The feud came to a head on September 6, 2003: Abbas submitted to Arafat his resignation from the post of Prime Minister, citing inability to carry out his duties in the face of continual opposition from Arafat and others in the Palestinian Authority, as well as a lack of support from Israel. He presided over a "caretaker" government until his successor Ahmed Qurei was sworn in on October 7, 2003.

After the death of Yaser Arafat he campaigned to fill his role as President, which he won. Despite this, negotiations with Israel still broke down, with Israelis citing his unwillingness or inability to crack down on Hamas etc. (I think that was the claim at the time). After the 2006 elections, Hamas swept the elections, displacing Abbas' Fatah party in Parliament. Israel responded by blockading Palestine and making overtures to Abbas. Israel sent him and his group weapons and unofficially encouraged him to stage a coup against Hamas. Although its disputed who started it, a small-scale civil war broke out, where Abbas threw all Hamas members out of the Palestinian government and Hamas members removed Fatah party members from power in Gaza.

References:
* http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/news-article.aspx?storyid=4749 Abbas: No Force Against Arab Militants, AP (June 9, 2003)
* http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/1933453.stm Profile: Mahmoud Abbas'', BBC News (September 4, 2003)

Source: Wikipedia