Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert agreed on Monday to grant clemency to 178 Fatah gunmen and release 250 additional prisoners in an effort to bolster Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. The move issues conditional pardon to an estimated three fourths of the wanted terrorists in al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades and is drawing fire from Israeli conservatives, some within Olmert’s own cabinet.

The agreement was confirmed in a two-hour meeting between the two leaders held in Jerusalem. Going into the meeting, Abbas was expected to stipulate clemency for the gunmen and the release of the prisoners, almost all of whom are affiliated with his Fatah party, as well as permission for a Palestinian brigade of the Jordanian Army to cross into the West Bank and for provision of military equipment from Egypt.

Abbas has told Olmert he needs to strengthen his Preventative Security Forces with Al Aqsa gunmen in order to disarm Hamas’s presence in the West Bank.

Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and the European Union. Israel Defense Forces arrest raids have kept many of these gunmen in hiding, but those raids will now be significantly scaled back.

Hamas terrorists shot up Abbas’s much larger Preventative Security Forces in June, overthrowing 40,000 armed Fatah men and seizing control of the Gaza Strip. The chairman was sharply criticized for failing to issue much more than appeals for a cease-fire during the crisis.

U.S. President George W. Bush is expected to announce more financial and diplomatic support for Abbas in response to Monday’s meeting; he has already requested $86 million for the chairman’s security forces.

A similar U.S.-backed plan to beef up Abbas’s forces in Gaza resulted in thousands of assault weapons, mortars, grenades, vehicles and other equipment falling into Hamas hands when Abbas failed to issue clear, coordinated commands to suppress the insurrection.

“If we continue to cooperate with Abbas, Hamas will eventually take control of the West Bank too,” Deputy Prime Minister Avigdor Lieberman said.

Olmert agreed to clemency for the gunmen and release of the prisoners, as well as lifting roadblocks in the West Bank, despite warnings from idf Central Command and from other Israeli leaders.

“Any attempt to strengthen Abbas is doomed to fail,” Lieberman, who is also strategic affairs minister, said.

“Name one thing Abbas has done to deserve such grand gestures. Has he arrested wanted men? Rounded up firearms? Fought against terrorism? You can’t strengthen a zero, it will always equal zero.”

Olmert claims the promises Israel gains from the Palestinians are worth the “calculated risk.” His office emphasized that all Palestinians included in the agreement swore to renounce terrorism.

“They have deactivated themselves as terrorists,” a spokeswoman said.

“Abbas is under enormous pressure from Arab nations and the international community. He has recently taken a series of positive actions: He is using determined rhetoric against terror, he has issued a presidential decree that bans carrying firearms and determined that armed militias must not be allowed to control the streets,” another aide said.

Olmert insists no prisoner “with blood on his hands” will be released, but the agreement allows clemency for Zakariya Zubeidi, one of the most powerful commanders on Israel’s wanted lists. Zubeidi is head of the Fatah Tanzim militia, which has sent female suicide bombers on attacks inside Israel.

Guerilla leader Nayef Hawatmeh has apparently been given permission to enter the West Bank on Wednesday, though he says he rejects any Israeli conditions for the visit. Families of terrorism victims and conservatives are outraged; under Hawatmeh’s command, militants killed 22 schoolchildren in 1974.

Many doubt Abbas’s ability, with or without Israeli help, to garner majority support among Palestinians. These latest concessions, which are larger than any since categorical amnesty for Yasser Arafat’s guerillas in 2000—many of whom armed themselves against Israel and formed the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades—will likely prove to put bloody men back on the street in return for nothing more than promises, a hallmark of the peace process.

For more on how the “peace process” is actually causing irreparable harm in Israel, read “Israel’s Bleeding Wound.”