Figurehead? Personal History Karia was born to a wealthy merchant family in the Jerusalem neighborhood of Abu Dis in 1937. He is married with 5 children. In the wake of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank in 1967, he left Abu Dis for the Persian Gulf, moving to Beirut, Cyprus and Tunis. He now lives in Abu Dis. A banker by trade, Karia joined Arafat's Fatah wing the new reality. "Israelis coming here, Palestinians of the PLO in 1968 and came to prominence in the going there. But it happened." mid-1970s, when he took over the Palestinian Samed He also has a rare understanding of Israeli con- bank in Lebanon. cerns. By 1980, the PLO's business enterprises Karia head- In 2002, Karia told Palestinian TV that Palestinian ed generated an income of about $40 million a year, mistakes were among the reasons that many Israelis and, with 6,500 full-time employees, ranked as one of no longer supported peace and the reason why the the largest employers in Lebanon. The organizations right had come to power in Israel, according to the Karia headed also funded economic and social activities Jerusalem Post. in the West Bank. The peace movement "has begun to dwindle in In 1983, when the Israeli army forced the PLO out Israel apparently due to some of the methods that we of Lebanon, Karia left with Arafat and the rest of use," he was quoted as saying. "We are not talking leadership for Tunis. There, he was elected to the Fatah about legitimate resistance here. But I do say that Central Committee in 1989 and worked closely with some of the actions that harm us need to stop." Abbas, who was then in charge of Karia's sartorial flair — he unofficial contacts with Israel. favors stylish rimless glasses In 1993, Karia headed the and tailored suits — also Palestinian delegation to the secret helps sell his people's case in talks in Norway that led to the Oslo the West. Accords, signed on the White House Karia became close to a lawn on Sept. 13, exactly 10 years number of his Israeli inter- – ago. locutors: Uri Savir, his coun- Around the same time, Karia was terpart in the secret talks instrumental in drafting a Palestinian before Oslo, and Maj. Gen. development plan, which was pre- Uzi Dayan, a scion of one of sented to a World Bank conference Israel s founding families on aid in 1993. The draft became a who conducted security talks central document in the PLO devel- with Karia in 1995. opment strategy for the Palestinian Savir describes Karia as a Palestinian Authority President Yasser territories. warm, outgoing man of great Arafat talks to Parliament speaker Later, Karia helped design the personal charm with an impish Ahmed Karia, who was named prime Palestinian Economic Council for sense of humor. But he adds minister Sept. 7. Development and Reconstruction, an that Karia was a tough and tal- organization that channels interna- ented negotiator, totally dedi- tional capital for Palestinian projects. cated to the Palestinian cause and historical narrative. In January 1996, when Palestinians voted for their He has a clear-eyed view of what each side wants. first parliament, Karia was elected speaker of the 88- In October 1999, when then-Israeli Prime member Palestinian Legislative Council, a position he Minister Ehud Barak launched the process that has held ever since. would lead to the final-status Camp David talks in At Camp David in 2000, Karia took umbrage after 2000, Karia correctly predicted that the new initia- being upbraided by President Clinton for speaking as if tive would founder over the issue of Palestinian he were "addressing the U.N.," and he took little fur- refugees. ther part in the talks. Karia says he was merely rejecting That hard-nosed approach has its advantages, said an inadequate Israel territorial offer. Stephen P. Cohen, a Middle East scholar who met Karia lacks a firm political base, but unlike Abbas, he with Karia after his appointment was announced. stood for the legislative council and was elected in his The man known as Abu Ala is a "closer," Cohen home district of Abu Dis. Like Abbas, he is a pragma- said, and can bring talks to a resolution. tist, presumed ready for a deal with Israel, although he "He's not one of those negotiators who talks end- avoided Abbas' overt criticism of the "militarization" of lessly; he knows how to close the deal," Cohen said. "That's what his specialty is, getting to close the deal." the intifada (uprising), an implicit jab at Arafat s han- dling of it. But not everyone is optimistic. U.S. Secretary of State Corm Powell suggested that As long as Arafat is around, there is no progress; the personality of any Palestinian Authority prime min- there are constant obstructions," said Gal Luft, an ister was less important than the powers he accrued Israeli analyst. and how he administered them. "No Palestinian government can move on the road "We hope that however it turns out, whoever the map; it doesn t matter which Abu' you put in prime minister is — and I would suspect it is going to charge. As long as Arafat is there it's hopeless," said be Abu Ala — that he will make a commitment to Luft, who heads the U.S.-based Institute for the fight terrorism," Powell said. ❑ Analysis of Global Security. The new Palestinian prime minister, Ahmed Karia, is a pragmatist with ties to Arafat and the Israelis. RON KAMP EAS Jewish Telegraphic Agency Washington timed Karia, the Palestinian prime minis- ter-designate, was at Yasser Arafat s side when they left Beirut in ignominy in 1983, and again when they arrived in Gaza in triumph in 1994. And he's not likely to leave the side of the man he calls "brother" in his new job. Karia, 65, says his success in his new job depends on an end to the isolation of Arafat. His failed prede- cessor, Mahmoud Abbas, was never as close to Arafat and was more willing to confront Arafat s insistence on control of the process. Karia, who accepted the position Sept. 10 pending confirmation by the Palestinian Parliament, also called on Israel to halt its killings of Palestinian ter- rorists and freeze settlements in the West Bank. President Bush said Karia needs to wrest control of the security services away from Arafat, with whom the United States refuses to deal. "His job, if he's interested in a two-state solution, is to consolidate power and to unleash those security forces against killers," Bush said while meeting with Prime Minister Sheik Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah of Kuwait. Bush said Israel also needed to create the condi- tions for Karia to succeed, an apparent reference to U.S. expectations that Israel lift economic restrictions on the Palestinians. Ghassan Khatib, the Palestinian Labor minister, said Karia is keen not to repeat Abbas failure. "If Karia is not assured of any progress for the peace process, he will not get any achievements for his people, which means a failure," he said. "So he wants to throw the ball in the right court," to the Israelis and the Americans. Israel is less than likely to deliver a friendly recep- tion on those terms: Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz said Israel would not cooperate with a prime minister who followed Arafat s orders. Israel believes the Palestinian failure to contain terrorists is a ploy by Arafat to use violence as negotiating leverage. Still, some Israelis find Karia an affable, dapper moderate who has acknowledged Palestinian mistakes in the collapse of the peace process — and still more palatable than Arafat as a partner. Unlike many of his compatriots, who saw accom- modation with Israelis after the landmark 1993 Oslo agreement as a necessary evil, Karia spoke of the new era with the same pleased wonder as his Israeli coun- terparts. In 1999, he ventured into the Israeli Knesset for a meeting with his then-counterpart in the Parliament speaker job, Avraham Burg. The two posed beneath a portrait of Zionist icon Theodor Herzl and bantered. "It was difficult for me to imagine," Karia said the same year, speaking to a reporter in Ramallah about A 9/12 2003 28