Escaping Arafat's Shadow
By MAHMOUD ABBAS; MATT REES; JAMIL HAMAD Sunday, Mar. 06, 2005
www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1034717,00.html
For his first interview with an English-language magazine since taking
office in January, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met with TIME's
Jerusalem bureau chief, Matt Rees, and correspondent Jamil Hamad last
Saturday in his West Bank office. After buzzing an aide for a cigarette (he
does not carry his own pack, believing, he joked, that "this keeps down my
consumption"), Abbas talked for an hour about his challenges.
TIME: What do you think will be the consequences for Palestinians of events
in Lebanon?

ABBAS: It's clear-cut. President Assad said he will withdraw. But for us, we
don't know yet the consequences. We don't know the demands of the Americans.

TIME: In Washington, many think the growing democracy movement in the Middle
East comes from President Bush's pressure.

ABBAS: I don't think that we made democracy because President Bush pushed
us. We decided that we should have a democratic process, and we did it
without any pressure.

TIME: Now that you've been elected, your progress depends on your cease-fire
with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the Islamist groups opposing peace. How secure
is it ?

ABBAS: I concluded a truce with Hamas when I was Prime Minister. After I
became head of the Palestinian Authority, I conducted talks with them, and
they accepted without any pressure on them. It is a democracy. We have to
deal with them accordingly.

TIME: But when they launch suicide-bomb attacks like the latest one in Tel
Aviv?

ABBAS: They said they are not responsible and they'll stick to the
cease-fire. All of [the Islamist factions]. Even those that are in Damascus.

TIME: Who was responsible, then, for the Tel Aviv attack?

ABBAS: It was individuals. We arrested five. If you ask me who is
responsible, the Israelis are responsible. The bombers came from the suburb
of Tulkarem to Tel Aviv, crossing the wall. So who is responsible? The wall
and the Israelis.

TIME: Hamas won seats in municipal elections in January. Now the P.L.O. has
an opposition?

ABBAS: This is proof that they are going to be a political party, which is
good.

TIME: Israelis and Americans are shocked to think Hamas could be in your
parliament.

ABBAS: Why not? They should be in the parliament. They will share
responsibility. Israel has more than 33 political parties from right to left
and in between.

TIME: What's your plan to reach a peace agreement with Israel?

ABBAS: We suggested to the Israelis and Americans to work in back channels
on final-status issues while we are working on earlier phases of the road
map. If we start now, we have a lot of time to work with the Americans to
find ideas, to find compromises. But if we go [without preparation] to the
third [final status] phase of the road map, and then we get a make-or-break
situation like Camp David [in 2000], it's unworkable.

TIME: President Bush wrote Israeli Prime Minister Sharon a letter saying
that in a final deal, there will be no right of return and there will be
adjustments to the 1967 borders and the status of Jerusalem.

ABBAS: President Bush doesn't have the right to prejudice final-status
issues. These issues should be discussed in the final stages, not now. He
can't make commitments on behalf of the Palestinian people. It is our right
to say yes or no.

TIME: To get a final-status agreement, do you think you will have to make
unpopular decisions, unpopular compromises?

ABBAS: I promise any compromise will go to a referendum. People will accept
it or not.

TIME: Do you think you can achieve a deal in one five-year presidential
term?

ABBAS: I have to do it because after that I won't be President anymore.

TIME: Yasser Arafat was a symbol for Palestinians around the world. Do you
see yourself as a different kind of leader?

ABBAS: There are differences in our ways of thinking. I want to put
everything on the table, and you can take it or leave it. Even when I was
running for the elections, many friends advised me not to. But I said, "No,
I have to tell the people everything. Either they'll elect me or not."

TIME: Are you worried that might anger people? Are there threats against
your life?

ABBAS: Everybody is under threat. We are Muslims. We believe that when life
comes to an end, it comes.

TIME: It's risky just to be a Palestinian?

ABBAS: It's risky. But it's also risky to be an American. You remember the
Twin Towers. So if you believe in God, you won't be afraid.

TIME: You were born in Safad, in what is now Israel. How did it feel when
you went back for a visit in 1995?

ABBAS: Very sad. It's my country. I know every street and store. But now I'm
not allowed to be there. That's life. I'm not asking for Safad. I'm not
asking to return there.