NAME: Mahmoud Abbas

AGE: 68

NATIONALITY: Palestinian

CLAIM TO FAME: The first Palestinian Prime Minister

HIS is as daunting a task as they come. To be the first Prime Minister of a Palestinian state that has yet to fully emerge from the shackles of Israel, is, indeed, a job that very few must have been in the hunt for. For veteran freedom-fighter and politician Mahmoud Abbas, life is no bed of roses. Long in the shadow of Yasser Arafat, he has been one of those few Palestinian leaders who have strongly advocated peace with Israel.

But the road to peace is strewn with the risk of self-destruction that very few Palestinian politicians must be willing to take.

Born in the British Mandate Palestine, he is one of the few remaining founding members of Fatah, the main political grouping within the PLO. However, unlike most of his colleagues, for Abu Mazen, as he is also called, the road to peace began well before the Oslo Accord. He had long recognized that a Palestinian state will have to co-exist with a Jewish state. Which is why many say that when an armed struggle seemed the only option for the PLO, he distanced himself from the group’s core activities.

He even in the 1970s initiated dialogue with the Jewish left-wing and pacifist movements, a move unheard of till the 1990s. Subsequently he became one of the first Palestinian leaders to recognize Israel, and is widely acknowledged as the architect of the Oslo Peace Accord.

But for most of the time, the PLOs Secretary-General has kept his practical approach to himself. Not many, even in the Palestinian community, knew him before his latest appointment. However, even through trying times, in which he and Yaser Arafat refused to talk to each other for long periods, he has remained loyal to the PLO, organizing the group’s finances and recruiting young Palestinians who eventually went on to hold important positions in the PLO.

Still now, definitely past his prime and not in the best of health, Mahmud Abbas is faced with the toughest task of his long career. A vocal critic of the 31-month-old Palestinian uprising, he feels the violence is serving Israeli designs and not helping the Palestinian cause. What he has in mind, and what the future has in store for the troubled region, the world will have to wait and see.