RAMALLAH, West Bank — The two have squabbled and made up, traded stony silences, trafficked in machinations and negotiations. For decades, as their careers diverged and meshed, they have been nervous allies and sometime foes.
Yasser Arafat, the iconic, aging leader of the Palestinian people, has come to symbolize terrorism and corruption in Israel and has been cast off by the United States. Mahmoud Abbas, who goes by the nom de guerre Abu Maazen, is a man with a revolutionary background but moderate inclinations. He is Arafat's deputy -- and his greatest political threat.
Their complicated relationship took another turn Saturday, when a pale Arafat asked the Central Council of the Palestine Liberation Organization to appoint Abbas prime minister. It was a loaded moment -- the new prime minister could deplete the famously autocratic Arafat's authority. But in the end, Arafat had no choice.
Creating the post of prime minister was originally a Palestinian notion, part of a broad plan for reform. But outsiders -- Russia, the U.N., the U.S. and the European Union -- seized on the idea and pushed it forward.
"The international community desperately wants to see any change. They're hoping this might break the deadlock" of stalled peace talks, said Nasser Kidwa, the Palestinian representative to the United Nations.
Kidwa was among the Palestinian politicians gathered in the courtyard of Arafat's ruined compound here Saturday. Overhead, tattered plastic Palestinian flags flapped in the wind.
"The Israeli government wants this measure as a way to take away from Mr. Arafat's powers and eventually have him displaced," said Ziad abu Amr, head of the Palestinian Legislative Committee. "He's been monopolizing power in his hands all along."
Saturday's meeting was the first time the Palestinian lawmakers have gathered since September 2000, when the current Palestinian uprising began. Some of them hadn't left the Gaza Strip in months; Arafat has been confined to his compound for more than a year.
When Arafat climbed down the steps from his office to a courtyard packed with cameras, he clung to Abbas' arm and beamed. He made his way to a cavernous gallery, where in a rare public speech he read from the Koran, praised the "martyrs" who have died fighting for Palestinian statehood and cataloged the devastation faced by the Palestinians in the uprising.
