Thinking Security Over

Janine Zacharia of the Washington Post, like others, writes:

In August, four Jewish settlers were killed in a drive-by shooting in the West Bank. But since then, a relative calm had prevailed in the area as Palestinian security forces asserted greater control over the territories where Israel allows them to operate and as Israeli and Palestinian forces coordinate security efforts.

But the highlight, the showcase of the so-called Dayton Force "success" is, or rather, was, in that very area, in the Shchem/Nablus region. 

If an incident such as this occurs, what is the worth of the Pal. police and did America let us down, again?

^

The Insecurity of US-Provided Security

ABC's Christiane Amanpour, yes, not CNN, asked a question of Hilary Clinton at the David Citadel Hotel in Jerusalem on September 16, 2010:-

QUESTION: What has he said about the state of Palestinian security on the West Bank, for instance?

and the reply:-

SECRETARY CLINTON: Well, I think that all the Israeli leaders have been impressed [sic] with what the Palestinian security forces are doing. At the same time, they are very concerned about the increasing threats. I mean, we’re now living in an age where Iran is a state sponsor of terrorism and funds Hamas and Hezbollah on Israel’s borders.

We’re living in a time when technology is going so quickly that short-, medium-, and long-range missiles are more and more available, not just to states that are antagonistic toward Israel, but even to these networks of terrorist groups. So I think that there is a very important focus on security in the 21st century. If we were talking 20, 30 years ago, it would be a different set of concerns.

Coincidentally, the New York Review of Books has a story on this aspect of security and especially the US-funded, trained, guided force which I have dealt with in a variety of posts (try here and here for starts).

A few comments on the NYRB piece:

a) it's in there but not explicit: if Israel didn;t have freedom of movement to go in to these so-called "secure" areas nightly, there wouldn't be security during the day. almost every day, if you check the news sites of Haaretz, JPost and INN, you'll find reports of "last night X terror suspects were arrested".

b) there is no true oversight on the money not ending up where it shouldn't.

c) as Cavalucci pointed out,m the training, at first, was terrible. despite claims, do we really know it has improved?

d) these Pal. security personal will collapse in Judea and Samaria as they did in Gaza, plain and simple.

e) no one is dealing with the underlying problem: Arab rejection of Jewish nationhood.

For example:

Senior Palestinian Authority negotiator Nabil Shaath has announced that the PA will never accept Israel as a Jewish state. In addition, he threatened war if the PA fails to obtain its demands through negotiations, saying, “A Palestinian state will arise, either through negotiations or through armed resistance.”

The Arab League voted last week to support PA Chairman Abbas' refusal to recognize Israel as Jewish.

What a waste of money, time and effort. I would have added expertise but I ma not sure of that.


- - -

US Trains...Terrorists?

Pamela of AtlasShrugs has the right headline:

"Moderate" Muslim US-trained Police Officer Murders IDF Soldier Sitting in his Car

You have been following my Dayton-Jones training series, yes?

Jones: Get Ready for Shock

Reported:

National Security Adviser Gen. Jim Jones tells USA Today that Americans will be shocked by details yet to emerge in the declassified intelligence report on Detroit airline-bombing suspect Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab that President Barack Obama plans to release today

Wait until the report on his joint mission with Dayton to subvert Israel's security with his training of PA personnel comes out.

(Do a search here using "Jones", "Dayton", "security" or try this for a start)

Don't Tell Me I Didn't Warn About Dayton's Duds

For two years now, I have been posting alerts about the American effort to presume to present Israel with a working Pal. security force so that it could continue its pressure on Israel to withdraw.

Well, as INN rports:

IDF Returns to Shechem to Replace ‘Dayton’s PA Army’

The IDF returned to Shechem and carried out a major counterterrorist maneuver that the Palestinian Authority’s fledgling army, trained by U.S. military officers, was supposed to have been responsible for. The Tuesday night counterterrorist operation nabbed an Islamic Jihad operative wanted for several years for planning two suicide attacks and for attacking soldiers.

The suspect, Zalach Mahmad Zalach Buchari, was responsible for planning a suicide bombing in the Tel Aviv central bus station in January 2002, in which 28 people were wounded...The IDF action Tuesday night bore out frequent military officers’ statements that the success of the PA forces in maintaining law and order is dependent on the IDF.

They have warned that if the IDF were to totally abandon the area, terrorists would regain the upper hand. "We see progress, but we won't give them full control of the cities. They're not capable of fighting Hamas and Islamic Jihad," a senior IDF officer, coordinating between General Keith Dayton and the PA, recently told TIME magazine.

...Dayton earlier this year said that the PA police-military unit will fall apart if progress is not made towards establishing the PA as a country...

Remember My Warnings About Dayton?

If the Palestinians follow through with their threat to renew their terror war against Israel it will be quite bad. This is so not because Israel will be unable to defend itself. Israel has the means to defend itself. It will be quite bad because, in light of the hostile treatment Israel is suffering at the hands of the Obama administration, and given the central role the U.S. under Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton is playing in arming and training the Palestinian army that will likely be attacking Israeli targets in Judea and Samaria, the U.S. may well side with the Arabs against Israel. The administration is already placing limitations on arms sales to Israel.

Caroline Glick via Atlas Shrugs

US Trains Pal. Terrorists It Seems

I'm not surprised to have been alerted to this piece by Rachel Ehrenfeld where she writes:

The scheme behind the U.S. military initiative to organize and train the PA military forces is that these “new men” would help Abbas defeat Hamas. However, Abbas had already indicated that he “has agreed in principle to form a joint security force with …Hamas.” This does not seem to phase Dayton, who insists that the “new men,” are on a mission to "create a Palestinian state."

Abu Yusef, a member of the PA’s Chairman own security unit - Force 17, has an unambiguous view of the American military training of the Palestinians: “The operations of the Palestinian resistance would [not] have been so successful and "would not have killed more than 1,000 Israelis since 2000, and defeated the Israelis in Gaza without [American military] trainings,” he boasted in an interview in August 2007. "All the methods and techniques that we studied in these trainings, we applied them against the Israelis," he said.

Abu Yusef explained that the American training helped the Palestinian forces to better snipe “at Israeli settlers and soldiers.” The special intelligence training they received from the U.S. instructors helped them “collect information on the movements of soldiers and settlers… the best timing to infiltrate our bombers inside Israel.” Abu Yusef specified: “We used weapons and we produced explosives, and of course the trainings we received from the Americans and the Europeans were a great help to the resistance."

If the past is of any indication, then the “new men” would join thousands of already well-trained and well-equipped Palestinians whose main goal remained to fight Israel. Yet, the U.S. is determined to expedite the training.

I have blogged multiple times (here, and here, and here and here) on the 'Dayton Force' and the Jones Plan and the Cavalucci Mess.

Will anybody in the Netanyahu administration take notice?


(Kippah tip: Pam Geller)

Dayton Sets A Date

If you search through my blog for "Dayton", you'll find a lot. He's establishing the new Pal. army and he admits it. And he even fixes a date - two years hence. Of course, he expects the political dingodango to right itself out by then.

His words quoted here:

...The three 500-man battalions are intended to grow, to as many as ten battalions. Their mission, he said, is to "create a Palestinian state." Recognizing that many in the WINEP audience were not exactly enamored with the idea of an independent Palestine, Dayton told his audience: "If you don't like the idea of a Palestinian state, you won't like the rest of this talk."

From the detailed description provided by Dayton, it's clear that the Palestinian forces he's enabling could certainly be accused of carrying out the self-policing of the West Bank for the Israelis. Because the West Bank is, after all, occupied by Israel and riddled with illegal settlements besides -- plus beset by a surrounding wall, 600-plus intrusive checkpoints, and a network of Jews-only highways -- the Palestinian troops are utterly at the mercy of the Israelis. Each recruit is vetted by US security forces (i.e, the CIA), then vetted by Shin Bet, the domestic intelligence arm of Israel, and then by Jordan's super-efficient intelligence service, before they begin their training in Jordan. Dayton made it quite clear that the Palestinian units thus trained are primarily deployed against two targets in the West Bank: against criminal gangs, and against Hamas.

So far, they've received $161 million is US funding.

Dayton described how, during the Israeli assault on Gaza last December and January, the West Bank remained quiet -- even though some analysts were predicting an upsurge of sympathy for Hamas, which controls Gaza, along with violence, even a third intifada. "None of these predictions came true," said the general, who added that the Palestinian battalions allowed peaceful demonstrations of solidarity with Hamas, but kept the lid on violent actions. Israel, he said, "kept a low profile," and not a single Palestinian was killed in the West Bank during the three-week carnage in Gaza. [as if Israel wasn't busy as hell in there at the very same time, before and after, arresting at night because those 'troops' are afraid of the dark]

Most of the work he's done, Dayton said, occurred in the West Bank after the June, 2007, Hamas takeover in Gaza. "What we have created are 'new men,'" he added.

Now for the warning. Recognizing that by organizing and training thousands of Palestinian troops, professionally led, he is creating in effect a nationalist army, Dayton warned the 500 or so WINEP listeners that the troops can only be strung along for just so long. "With big expectations, come big risks," said Dayton. "There is perhaps a two-year shelf life on being told that you're creating a state, when you're not." To my ears, at least, his subtle warning is that if concrete progress isn't made toward a Palestinian state, the very troops Dayton is assembling could rebel.

Dayton was responding to a question from Paul Wolfowitz, the neoconservative former deputy secretary of defense, who now hangs his hat at the neocon-dominated American Enterprise Institute. "How many Palestinians see your people as collaborators?" Wolfowitz asked. In answering Wolfowtiz, the general acknowledged that Hamas and its sympathizers accuse the Palestinian battalions of being "enforces of the Israeli occuption." But he stressed that each one of them believes that he is fighting for an independent Palestine. The unstated message: the United States and Israel had better deliver. Thus the two year warning. Which, to me, sounds spot on with the Obama administration's timetable.

One more thing: General Dayton signed up for another stint in the West Bank. And how long did he agree to serve? Yes--two years.

The Bad News and The Really Bad News

Although, those who believe in the Dayton Thesis (a la Condi Rice; a la Hillary Clinton) that a strong PA force can be developed with will tame terror and allow Israel to think it can surrender startegic territory for its survival might think the following is good news, it's bad news and if you read the second item, you'll know why it's really bad news.

1.

PA says detained Hamas agents in West Bank

A Palestinian source told Ynet on Sunday that the Palestinian Authority had recently exposed a network of security personnel who cooperated with Hamas and gathered intelligence regarding the whereabouts and movement of top PA officials.

According to the source, the operation was headed by an intelligence officer who resides in the Jilazoun refugee camp near Ramallah [I used to drive by there for years until the new bypass road was paved - YM]. He was arrested along with four other people, the official said, adding that during his interrogation the officer admitted to receiving tens of thousands of dollars from Hamas and that some of the intelligence he had gathered was meant to help the Islamist group harm senior PA officials.

The source said the PA refrained from making the arrests public so as not to hinder the Egyptian-mediated reconciliation talks between Fatah and Hamas, which are expected to resume in Cairo on Monday. However, he said, the Authority was closely monitoring Hamas' recruitment efforts in the West Bank.

and now for number

2.

Poll: Haniyeh beats Abbas in West Bank, Gaza

If elections were held today in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh would defeat Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, according to an opinion poll published on Monday.

The survey also showed that Hamas's popularity among Palestinians had increased in the aftermath of Operation Cast Lead.

...The previous poll, conducted last December, gave Hamas only a 28% popularity rating, while the current poll showed the movement's popularity had increased to 33%.

...Hamas reiterated on Monday its fierce opposition to the appointment of outgoing PA Prime Minister Salaam Fayad.

Mushir al-Masri, a Hamas legislator and spokesman in the Gaza Strip, said Fayad, who submitted his resignation over the weekend, was "unacceptable" to the Palestinians..."Fayad is America's man in the region, and that's why the Palestinians don't want him," Masri said. "Fayad is not even accepted by Fatah, where he faces opposition by many of its leaders and members."

The Dayton Force and More US Millions

Ethan Bronner in the New York Times deals yet again with the new Pal. messiah: its "security forces".

Messiah?

“These guys now feel like they’re on a winning team, that they are building a Palestinian state,” said Lt. Gen. Keith W. Dayton.

Rina Castelnuovo


I have dealt several times with this new American mantra of "security" (here I; here II; and here III). Condoleeza Rice was almost ecstatic over it. Most recently, Hillary Clinton's advisors inserted in her statement a reference to this element of the "peace".

It's quite simple:

The Americans train the Pals. on an 18-acre campus built with $10 million of American taxpayer money in the Jordan Valley desert near Jericho, along with a 35-acre, $11 million operations camp a few miles away with a National Security Force Operations Camp elsewhere in Jericho.
The Pals. are trained.
The Pals. fight terror.
The Pals. fight the Hamas and others.
The Pals. (and Americans) then apply pressure on Israel to withdraw, assuring Israel that all is dinkydory and that no rockets or missiles or even mortars will rain down on Israel from the Samarian Hills and Judean Foothills.

Here, from the Pal. mouth:

“We have been trained with American money and by General Dayton, and that means a lot to us,” said Brig. Gen. Munir al-Zoubi, commander of the 1,800-man Presidential Guard, the elite force that protects top officials and guests. “We are here to enforce law and order and to use all means to fight terrorism.”

He was asked whether the word “terrorism” was a delicate one.

“Two years ago, we couldn’t talk about or use the term ‘terrorism,’ ” he said. “Any Palestinian who used the term was called a collaborator. But that is no longer true. We have discovered that many people commit terrorist acts under the cover of resistance to occupation. And we are fighting that.”...General Zoubi added that his forces had been trained in human rights, at their request, and in how to shoot without killing when capturing an armed suspect. [that must have been hard]

Okay, you can stop laughing now, even you people in Sderot bomb shelters.

And how did Dayton come to this?

He said he first became aware of the importance of this conflict beyond its borders when he was leading weapons searches in Iraq in 2003. As he and his men entered barracks of the Iraqi Republican Guards, he kept seeing drawings on the walls showing Jerusalem’s Dome of the Rock, a sacred Muslim shrine, being strangled by a cobra symbolizing Israel.

I wonder if he gave any thought to the real meaning of those wall drawings.

Part of "Dayton Force"

See here.

And how long before the "O" in "Force" turns into an "A"?

Did Dayton Do It?

General Dayton thinks he's done it.

Here's how his interview in Haaretz begins:-

If a Palestinian state is ever established in the West Bank, Gen. Keith Dayton will want to be remembered for playing a significant role in its establishment, as the person who helped the Palestinians to create a modern, effective and properly equipped security force. Like British officer Orde Wingate, who taught the Jewish soldiers of pre-state Israel what an army is and how to fight terror, Dayton is also laying the foundations for the "state in the making" - for the Palestinians. He feels a deep sense of mission and is confident his endeavor will succeed.

This week Dayton left on a home visit to the United States, after completing three missions: The first battalion of the rebuilt Palestinian National Security Forces, numbering 500 soldiers from the West Bank, completed four months of training in Jordan; a Presidential Guard training college is being constructed outside Jericho; and a strategic-planning department has been created in the Palestinian Authority's Interior Ministry in Ramallah, to establish decision-making and work processes.

I recall to you dear readers my previous posts and suggest to you that we need to be extremely circumspect about any claims of success in this matter.

You have been warned.