The Bush administration has undertaken efforts to arm and train the Presidential Guard of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in order to prepare it for a potential violent confrontation with Hamas forces in the Gaza Strip.
According to information received in Jerusalem, the American security coordinator in the territories, General Keith Dayton, appeared before representatives of the Quartet in London last week and presented them with a program for bolstering the Palestinian presidential guard. The program calls for Egyptian, British and perhaps even Jordanian instructors to train the force loyal to Abbas.
However, Palestinian sources say that the training of a "Special Presidential Guard" started already a month ago, under the guidance of an American military instructor. The training is taking place in Jericho, at a compound near the InterContinental Hotel, and involves men from Force 17, an elite Fatah force traditionally assigned the protection of the Palestinian Authority Chairman.
According to reports, 400 Force 17 troops have been involved in the training since August. The Palestinian Authority Chairman's office has recently barred the access of reporters to the compound. Palestinian sources say that the training program is part of Dayton's recommended initiative for the reinforcement of Abbas' forces, and which involves the transfer of $2 million to set up the necessary training
facilities.
According to foreign press reports, the United States would like to see the number of men in Force 17 grow from approximately 3,500 to 6,000. Conscripts in the force range from 18 to 22, and undergo basic training for three months. Some are then selected for the Presidential Guard. In the past, Dayton had proposed that the Presidential Guard, bolstered by international inspectors, be deployed at the Karni crossing in the northern Gaza Strip in order to expand the transit of goods between Gaza and Israel.
Israeli sources say that the United States is interested in the fall of the Hamas government currently in power in the Palestinian Authority. During the Quartet meeting in London, the Americans expressed their satisfaction with the results of the boycott of Hamas' government, which has undermined its standing among the Palestinians.
However, the U.S. administration is also certain that the sanctions against Hamas will inevitably result in a violent confrontation between Hamas and Fatah, and in such a scenario, they would prefer to strengthen the "good guys" headed by Abbas.
A man whose PhD’s dissertation denied the holocaust and the head of known terrorist organization which has carried out more terror attacks against Israeli civilians than any other single group is now a "good guy". I swear I am now the Queen of Sheba.
Fatah is a terrorist organization. No matter how Fatah feeds from your hand there is simply no way to tame the beast within nor is there any no quid pro quid of good will with a terror organization. Just wait for the next successive attack launched by Al Aqsa Martyr’s Brigade against civilians (and they are trying very hard), and then watch some enterprising victim’s family sue the US government for providing material support to a terrorist organization. Did I mention that I will be in Israel within the next year?
Abbas does not have uncontested internal support of his own party. There are great divisions in Fatah, nor is it clear that Abbas’ old guard fraction will come out on top. Furthermore, the Palestinian people deliberately withheld electoral confidence from Fatah less than a year ago. Fatah can no longer claim to speak for the Palestinian people so why are the Americans financing and training them? Have Americans really learned nothing from their adventures in Central or South America in the last 30 years?
Finally, it’s a lot of work for nothing. It would be far easier and cheaper to stick a few suicide vests on the Force 17 members and then point them in the direction of Hamas and say, “Pretend they are Jews and do what comes natural.”
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