Fatah- a new generation

          Fatah elected a mostly new leadership committee, ushering in a younger generation, according to election results released Tuesday. The new leaders grew up locally, in contrast to the exile-dominated leadership they are replacing. But many are familiar names and their election is not expected to bring about significant changes in Fatah policies. Many of the newly-elected members of Fatah's Central Committee may be younger than their ousted predecessors, but that does not mean that they are more reform-minded, less corrupt, or more moderate. The assumption that Muhammad Dahlan, Jibril Rajoub, Marwan Barghouti and Tawfik Tirawi are more moderate than old-timers like Ahmed Qurei, Nabil Sha'ath and Hani al-Hassan is completely mistaken. Fatah has said quite clearly that Israel must withdraw to the pre-1967 borders, including from all of the eastern part of Jerusalem, allow Palestinian refugees to return to their original homes inside Israel, dismantle all the settlements, including in Jerusalem neighborhoods, and evict all settlers living there and in the West Bank. Barghouti, who is serving five life terms in Israeli prison, was the head of the Fatah list that lost to Hamas in the January 2006 parliamentary election. Dahlan, Rajoub and Tirawi are all former security commanders who served as Yasser Arafat's henchmen. They are anything but reformists and moderates, and are best remembered for building detention centers, prisons, big villas and a casino for the Palestinians. Their main task was to suppress and intimidate political opponents, human rights workers, journalists and anyone who dared to challenge Fatah's corruption-riddled regime, and to hunt down Palestinians suspected of "collaboration" with Israel, media reported. (24,15)