Is the U.S. Building the Next Intifada?
Reported in Israel this week:
[Since 2007, the U.S. State Department] has invested $392 million in rehabilitating and training [Palestinian Authority] security forces … more than $160 million to fund certain units of the security forces, $89 million for vehicles and nonlethal equipment, $99 million for the renovation or construction of PA security forces’ installations and $22 million in programs to increase the forces’ capacity. The State Department has requested an additional $150 million for 2011.
The forces are trained mainly in Jordan, and then deployed in the West Bank. U.S. Army Lieutenant General Keith Dayton, who has been in charge of this endeavor and is soon to be replaced by U.S. Air Force Major General Michael Moeller, said in May 2009:
With big expectations, come big risks. There is perhaps a two-year shelf life on being told that you’re creating a state, when you’re not.
He was clearly implying that the Palestinians were being trained for the purpose of becoming the security force of an imminent Palestinian state. Now, in July 2010, with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas refusing — despite heavy Western pressure — even to enter talks with Israel, the “big risks” Dayton referred to seem to be looming.
Indeed, as revealed by Israeli media outlets this week, Israel regards this whole enterprise as risky, whether or not a Palestinian state is on the way. Yoni Ben-Menachem, head of Israel Radio since 2003, said on Monday:
Israeli security forces show great suspicion toward the Palestinian security apparatus in the West Bank despite the fact that they battle Hamas and were trained by U.S. General Dayton. Israel assesses that a scenario of another armed intifada in the West Bank is possible and that the Palestinian security apparatus might act against the settlers and IDF soldiers.
Ben-Menachem goes on to cite General Avi Mizrahi, head of Israel’s Central Command, saying in a speech last May at the national training center:
[The] IDF must also be prepared for an escalation in fighting against Palestinian security personnel trained in Jordan by U.S. General Dayton.
…
This is a trained force, better equipped by an American mentor, and the upshot is that at the beginning of combat, the price we pay will be higher. Such a force can close down a built-up area with four snipers, it’s deadly. It is no longer the gunmen of Jenin. It is an infantry force standing in front of us and we must take that into consideration.
Not surprisingly, another report on Monday — this one by Barak Ravid in Israel’s left-wing daily Haaretz — said:
A U.S. government watchdog has found that the Israeli government’s conduct in recent years — including delaying the transfer to Palestinian security forces of AK-47 rifles, radios, vehicles, and uniforms — hampers U.S. efforts to train those forces in the West Bank.
Ravid writes that the watchdog in question, the U.S. Government Accountability Office, claims the following:
Despite Israel’s demand that the Palestinians act against terrorist groups, Israel has rebuffed American efforts to train Palestinian forces in combating terror. … For instance, a shipment [to the forces] of 1,000 AK-47s was approved by the Israeli government, but detained in customs. … American officials told the accountability office that Israel was delaying the transfer of nonlethal equipment as well, and insists on deciding on a case-by-case basis whether equipment can be transferred to the PA.
What’s happening here? If the U.S. is investing so much in cultivating these fighters, why is Israel reportedly trying to foil the effort?
For one thing, Israel’s fears are well-founded in grim precedent.
In 1996, in the incident in Jerusalem known as the “tunnel war,” Palestinian policemen who had been armed by Israel turned their guns on Israeli soldiers and killed fifteen of them. On a much larger scale, Palestinian “security forces” took part in many anti-Israeli terror attacks in the second intifada. As recently as February 10 of this year, an Israeli soldier was stabbed to death in a terror attack by a PA police officer.
Also, the fact that the U.S.-trained PA forces are fighting Hamas — to what extent and how effectively depends on which reports one reads — does not mean these forces are Israel’s friends. The Fatah-run PA is in a deadly conflict with Hamas and doesn’t want it to take over the West Bank as it has taken over Gaza. The PA, however, remains mired in its own murderously anti-Israeli ethos that is hardly less vicious than that of Hamas. Considering that Israel is quite capable of quelling Hamas on the West Bank by itself, it is severely irresponsible for the U.S. to be training a PA force under such circumstances.
The Palestinian state that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says Israel could accept would have to be a demilitarized one. Yet even today, a top Israeli general describes the PA as having an “infantry force,” already casting the prospective state’s “demilitarization” in doubt.
And if, as seems very likely these days, that state is actually not going to arise soon, then General Dayton’s words about “big risks” and a short “shelf life” could prove all too prophetic as the well-trained but aimless forces seek a target for their new capabilities.
Saw this one coming right from the start. But it is not clear whether the Palestinians have another intifada in them anytime soon since their ringleader Arafat is gone. Another scenario is that they act in coordination with an Iranian inspired attack by Hezbollah, Hamas and Syria or after an Arab coalition attack backed by Turkey. The Palestinian forces could join in and wreak havoc from the West Bank into the narrow Israeli coastal strip and interfere with Israeli mobilization and civilian security.
Glubb Pasha II, General Dayton?
But if there were no intifada, there’d be no money made from selling arms to Israel to combat it. Surely we can’t ahve that?
a Stone lesson from Honest Abe: “Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.”
Divide and conquer is the way of the anglo-american imperialists — always has been. It’s really a shame some are so blind to it. I’ve been saying for a long time, the anglo-american imperialists are no friends of Israel. I guarantee you that Israelis/Judeans will end up totally exposed once the anglo-american imperialists are done with their oil thieving.
The U.S. blind pursuit of establishing this Pal. army goes back to Bush and has been continued seamlessly by Obama–it’s something on which they converge completely. They’re putting guns in the hands of guys reared in a violently anti-Semitic culture. The Israeli establishment has been kind of tongue-tied when it comes to complaining about it, but now the truth is starting to come out.
So there were problems with Bush.
Too bad you didn’t speak out against him WHILE he was President.
On the critical issues there are really little difference between the Republicans and the Democrats.
Do the Zetas come to mind? No? There are other groups that have not worked out well. Maybe, just maybe we should train Third World police, but not military. I don’t think this will end well in Iraq or Afghanistan. Based on past experience you might thing our government would learn.
I don’t see prospects of another intifada either. The West Bank has undergone some encouraging economic improvements and the Palestinians have probably decided they aren’t going to be dumb enough to provoke the IDF to smash it all up. This time, anyway.
Really? Why? b/c you think the Arabs think like you?
The Tao.
You are assuming perhaps that the intifada is spontaneous, comes from the people. This is not the case. The previous intifada was planned months ahead, it was a policy decision by the Palestinian leadership. The same thing will happen again if the leadership feels it is in their personal interest – they don’t give a damn about the ”people” or their economic well-being. And, sadly, the mass of Palestinians are easily manipulated, they are so indoctrinated by the constant barrage of propaganda that any baseless accusation can incite them to violence.
Indeed, it was only in recent weeks that Abbas said that if the Arab states would wage war on Israel, he would be with them. (So much for his “peace partner” status.) He just doesn’t want to fight them alone.
The moment Abbas decides it’s a ‘go’ – they all go. Those that don’t sit quiet – Islamic-Arab rules.
The US policy is of course irresponsible and directly threatens the security of Israelis – especially those in the coastal strip. BTW, that’s where most of the attacks occurred during the al Aqsa Intifada, not in the ‘settlements’ – Netanya, Afula, Hadera, Tel Aviv, Rishon LeTsion. The PLO strikes deliberately at the psychic heart of the Israeli establishment, and kills Israelis who are, some of them, ‘peaceniks’ and post-Zionists. Ironic.
Nice going America! Force Israel to dedicate nuclear missles for the U.S. and our troops.I hope they pick blue states to hit.
Well,everyone knows that the CIA is responsible for forming Al Qaida,so this should not surprise anyone.
Not exactly. They were primarily a Saudi-funded, Pakistani supported operation. (cf. Steve Coll’s “Ghost Wars”) In turn, al-Qaida supported Pakistani operations in Kashmir. For many years, folks in the US intelligence community didn’t even know who Bin Laden was, or that his role was beyond that of a terror financier. (cf. Richard Clarke’s “Against All Enemies”). The US dealt primarily with non-Arab insurgents, though again with lots of Saudi financing.
Ken wrote, “On the critical issues there are really little difference between the Republicans and the Democrats”.
Really? Buying into that meme might have been acceptable in 2008 but after 1 1/2 year of President Obama it requires willful blindness. To cite two examples, I don’t recall Bush publically and dramatically insulting the Israeli PM or bringing U.S./Israel relations to a crisis over a mid-level zoning board decision on building a few apartments for Jews in a Jewish neighborhood of Jerusalem.
The American globalist/Marxist CFR controled government once again performs Treason against Naationalist American tax payers who would never want terrorists given weapons paid for by same.
November can not come soon enough. Vote out all Demorats, and RINO’s.
I recall reading of a group of Palestinian intelligence officers brought to the US in the 1990s for training. The windows on their vehicle was blacked out so they couldn’t see exactly where they were going. When asked why, their minder responded something to the effect that today they were allies, while in the future that might not be the case. And indeed, many of those trained later turned their skills against Israel, while their equipment, codes, and documents ultimately fell into Hamas’ hands in Gaza.
Is this suppose to be some new revelation? I could have told these govt fools this was a bad joke before it even started and the obvious should not require a whole lot of smarts, but then this is probably state dept driven and leftist supported and neither seems to display even a drop of smarts or common sense.
The tip of the iceberg-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MEtQU5x5sE