Notorious Palestinian terrorists among hundreds of delegates admitted for Fatah Conference

Debka h/t Michael Travis:

Notorious Palestinian terrorists among hundreds of delegates admitted for Fatah Conference
DEBKAfile Special Report
August 3, 2009, 4:55 PM (GMT+02:00)

Israel has permitted the entire Fatah leaderships of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan - some 500 functionaries - to enter the country for the first Fatah general conference in 25 years which opens Tuesday, Aug. 4 in Bethlehem. Among them are notorious terrorists responsible for multiple-murder attacks on Israelis. DEBKAfile's military and intelligence sources report that Israel's security agencies are highly critical of prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu and defense minister Ehud Barak for surrendering to extreme US pressure to open the door to this large influx of Palestinian hardliners. Some are planning to stay on the West Bank instead of returning to their homes, presenting a grave new threat to national security.

The arrivals also threaten the conference on which Mahmoud Abbas has gambled his all with the takeover of the Fatah movement from local West Bankers. Mostly radicals, they will follow wherever Abbas' assigned successor, the rejectionist from Tunis Abu Maher Ghneim, leads, because he is the PLO's treasurer.

On arrival from Jordan at the Allenby Bridge Wednesday, July 29, Ghneim vowed "to continue the struggle until every grain of Palestinian land is liberated under the Palestinian flag." DEBKAfile: This pledge represents the substance of Clause 7 of the rival Hamas charter.
Netanyahu was persuaded to grant him admittance last week by US Middle East envoy George Mitchell and Egyptian president Hosni Mubarek. They explained that Abbas needs all the help he can get to make the conference a success or else he - and the Middle East peace process - were done for.

Sunday, Aug. 2, a group of mid-level Fatah activists from the West Bank decided not to run for the places on the central committee and revolutionary council to be elected by the three-day conference because they had no chance against the preponderant outsider, which also include delegations from the Persian Gulf, North Africa and Europe.

DEBKAfile's senior intelligence sources report that in his talks last week with Israeli leaders, the US national security adviser James Jones was more preoccupied with the Palestinians than the Iranian nuclear issue.

They reveal that he dictated to Barak a list of Palestinians whom he said the Obama administration wanted to be present at the Fatah event in order "to save the conference and Abu Mazen."

Barak handed the list to Netanyahu, who signed it after crossing off only two names: One of the Palestinians responsible for the massacre of Israeli sportsmen at the1972 Munich Olympics and Col. Moneir Maqdach, the Lebanese Fatah's liaison man with Hizballah and al Qaeda.

However, Gen. Sultan Abu al-Ayan, for 30 years commander of Fatah terrorist operations and shelling attacks from Lebanon against Israeli targets, won admittance. So too did Khaled Abu Esba, one of the 11 Fatah killers who blow up an Israeli bus on the Tel Aviv highway in 1978, killing 35 Israelis. Among them were babies whom the terrorists burnt alive.

Security sources commented that in their anxiety to meet American demands, the prime minister and defense minister had let key security and strategic interests go by the board.