PEOPLE POWER:

From 'Strong Man' to 'Good Man': Mahmoud Abbas sets out to be the un-Arafat. (BRET STEPHENS, January 10, 2005, Opinion Journal)

[M]r. Abbas issues three short-term challenges. "We won't allow any illegal weapons, and we won't allow people to be armed unless they are Fatah," he says. Fatah is Arafat's and Mr. Abbas's political party; the statement is a direct challenge to Hamas. "We need clean legal institutions so we can be considered a civilized society." Here, the reproach is of his famously corrupt colleagues in Fatah itself. "We need to make the law the leader in this country, and nobody can be above the law." The reference to Arafat couldn't be plainer.

So here is Mr. Abbas's political problem. He is Arafat's heir and owes his political existence to the party Arafat founded. Yet his success depends on repudiating much of Arafat's legacy--the cult of personality, kleptocratic government and terrorism--a legacy that has sunk deep roots in Palestinian culture. How to do so while remaining ideologically credible is the chief domestic test of his presidency. [...]

Hamas is boycotting the election, ostensibly because it is being carried out under the rubric of the Oslo Accords, which it rejects and which brought the Palestinian Authority into existence. But that did not prevent Hamas from participating in municipal elections late last year, and word on the street is that the Hamas leadership has encouraged its supporters to vote for Mustafa Barghouti, the principal opposition candidate, in order to cut into Mr. Abbas's margin of victory.

"Hamas expected internal fighting would erupt within Fatah after Arafat's death, and this would benefit them," says Salah Abdel Shafi, a German-educated economist and scion of a prominent Gaza family. "When this didn't happen, Hamas started feeling the pressure." Mr. Abdel Shafi predicts Mr. Abbas will win big, even in Gaza. "There is an enthusiasm for Abu Mazen," he says. "During the past few years, people became passive. This was the problem with the militarization of the intifada. By definition it's the work of an armed elite, which leaves everyone else nothing to do but watch. With the elections, people again feel empowered."