Saturday, August 28, 2010

Is the US training Israel’s enemies?

There are strong reservations about the wisdom of the US training a Palestinian security force.


David Bedein/Arlene Kushner
Op-Ed/JPost
27 August '10
Posted before Shabbat

Israel recently approved the delivery of Russian armored personnel carriers for the Palestinian Authority, while it continues to laud American assistance to PA security forces.

The program in question began in March 2005, with the establishment of a US security coordinator team, headed by Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton, who is due to step down from that post in the fall.

Plans then called for selected PA national security force troops to be trained and equipped by the US. The idea was to transform the old PLO terror militia into a professional force that would build a nation.

Five years later, with millions of dollars expended on this ongoing program, cogent reasons for doubting its wisdom present themselves.

Maj.-Gen. (res.) Ya’acov Amidror, former head of the IDF’s Research and Assessment Division, suggested last year that the Americans may be acting with “a certain naivete.” Concurring, an Arab journalist with connections to the PA has stated that “to expect political fruits from this is a mistake – an illusion.”

One of the more serious questions that has surfaced concerns the loyalty of the troops being trained. Dayton says they are loyal to “the Palestinian flag and the Palestinian people.”

Palestinian society, however, is founded on traditional Arab culture, whose first allegiance is to the clan (hamula), and not the nation.

(Read full article)

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