The Palestinian Fatah movement elected a group of younger leaders to its top council Tuesday, bolstering its credentials as the West's best hope for Mideast peace, according to preliminary voting results. The results indicate that pragmatic leaders who never left the Palestinian territories – and who often spent years in Israeli jails, worked with Israelis and speak Hebrew – won out over exiled hard-liners from places like Lebanon and Syria. “This election is setting a new future for the movement, a new democratic era,” said Mohammed Dahlan, 47, a former Gaza security chief who was one of the winners, according to the early results. Also elected were Marwan Barghouti, a 50-year-old firebrand militant leader now jailed by Israel and seen as a likely future president, and Jibril Rajoub, 56, a former aide to the late Yasser Arafat who led several crackdowns against Hamas. Rajoub said the outcome represented a break from the movement's previous leaders, many of whom are in their 70s. “This is a coup against a leadership that had monopolized the movement for a long time without even presenting a report about its work,” he said. All told, 14 of the Central Committee's 18 elected seats went to new members, with the remaining four going to incumbents from the old guard. President Mahmoud Abbas, also a member, will appoint four others. The final results, along with the results of the vote for the 80 elected seats of Fatah's 120-seat Revolutionary Council, which together with the Central Committee sets the movement's policies, were expected later Tuesday. Abbas remains the group's overall leader. – AgenciesBoost for Obama plan: Fatah's first conference in two decades, while plagued by wrangling and intrigue, appeared to rejuvenate the pre-eminent Palestinian organization at a critical moment, weeks before US President Barack Obama is to unveil a comprehensive plan to achieve Israeli-Palestinian peace. Some Israelis criticized the conference for failing to renounce violence, but Fatah's proposed platform seemed to bring the movement in line with Obama's anticipated peace plan. The 2,300 delegates endorsed the concept of a Palestinian state alongside Israel achieved through peaceful negotiations. However, the delegates conditioned future talks on a complete halt to Israeli settlement construction on land earmarked for a future Palestinian state – a demand rejected by the current Israeli government – and said they reserve the right to take up arms against Israel if negotiations fail. u Only 4 from old guard: Only four of the 10 members of the so-called “old guard” managed to hold onto their seats on the central committee, the results showed. The Fatah veteran Ahmed Qurei, who was the first Palestinian prime minister, lost his seat. One member of the founding generation, Muhammad Ghneim (also known as Abu Maher Ghneim), who is considered close to President Mahmoud Abbas and recently returned from Tunisia, won a seat. Saeb Erekat, a key negotiator with Israel, and Jibril Rajoub, who has led one of the party's security forces, also gained posts on the committee, the partial results showed. Hamas hindrance: Perhaps the biggest hindrance to Palestinian statehood dreams is Hamas' control of the Gaza Strip, which together with the West Bank is supposed to comprise a future Palestine. Fatah delegates from Gaza, prevented by Hamas from leaving the territory to attend the conference, voted by phone. All attempts to reconcile the two groups following Hamas' violent 2007 takeover of Gaza have failed. But Mahmoud Zahar, a Hamas leader, said Monday that the election could open a door to talks. “We wish for a new leadership in Fatah so we can continue the dialogue,” he said during a visit to Egypt.‘Liquidate Zionist entity': The conference discussed proposed revisions to Fatah's charter, although the document has yet to be finalized. Delegates said the new wording would not abandon the old document's call to “liquidate the Zionist entity”, but would include a commitment to “two states for two people”. It would call for a Palestinian state be established on the basis of 1967 borders – meaning all of the West Bank and Gaza – and maintain the “right to resistance” by all means, delegates said. Fatah was founded in the 1950s to lead armed struggle against Israel, but effectively rejected violence and endorsed a two-state solution by backing the 1990s Oslo peace process. During the conference, delegates' held to Fatah's existing demands for the release of all Israeli-held Palestinian prisoners, a capital in Jerusalem, the removal of all Israeli settlements in the West Bank, and the right of return for Palestinians who fled or were forced out during Israeli
