Once again, Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party, the Palestinian faction the international community wants everyone to view as "moderate," has proved itself to be anything but.
At the conclusion of the Fatah convention in Bethlehem on Tuesday, party members voted out most of the "old guard" Central Committee members and replaced them with younger party activists that the international media is trying to paint as "reformers."
Fatah has been plagued by corruption and mismanagement, and the new Central Committee members may indeed do something to remedy that, if for no other reason than to stop losing political ground to Hamas.
But these "fresh faces," as some media outlets referred to them, are some of Fatah's most violent and blood-soaked personalities.
Leading the list is Marwan Barghouti, who is serving several life sentences in an Israeli prison for his role as leader of the Fatah-aligned terror group the Al Aksa Brigades, which killed numerous Israelis at the start of the recent terror war.
Lebanon-based Fatah strongman Sultn Abu al-Aynain, who was described by Fatah insiders who spoke to the Jerusalem Post as a "ruthless thug," is also near the top of the list.
Favorites of past US presidents, Mohammed Dahlan and Jibril Rajoub, also won places on the powerful Central Committee. During their time as the Palestinian Authority security chiefs in Gaza and the "West Bank," respectively, Dahlan and Rajoub actively facilitated terrorist activity against Israel.
As a top advisor to Abbas today, Dahlan openly advocates a return to near open warfare with Israel.
Indeed, earlier in the week all of the new members of the Central Committee voted in favor of a new Fatah party platform that officially places the option of renewed terrorism against Israel back on the table, in violation of the PA's signed peace agreements.
The new party platform also officially endorses Barghouti's Al Aksa Brigades as an integral part of the Palestinian "security" forces.