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LOS ANGELES - Sharp criticism is being directed at some local Jewish community leaders in the wake of their private meetings with a visiting top aide of PLO chief Yasser Arafat.
The emissary was Khaled al-Hassan, recently described by The New York Times as Arafat's "trouble shooter" and senior adviser, who initiated the visit through Stanley K. Sheinbaum, a long-time peace activist who was one of five American Jews to meet with Arafat in Stockholm in December 1988. Hassan is a founder with Arafat of the PLO's mainstram group, Fatah, and chairman of the foreign affairs committee of the Palestine National Council, the Palestinian "parliament."
"Hassan contacted me and asked me if I could arrange some meetings for him, without any publicity," said Sheinbaum. "I always feel that any discussion {with Palestinians} is good," he added. During Hassan's two-day visit a month ago, he met with about 60 people in Sheinbaum's house, then with a smaller group of 15 the following day, and...