[WCUSP] NYT editorial on US assistance to Isr-Pal security...

[Libby or Mort Frank]

My strong opinion is that the U.S. is NOT the force to be used in the Middle East for anything right now.  Not for policing, not for anything.  Cordesman talks about defeating Hamas -- that's the wrong tack to take.  Even Obama says something better.

Maybe U.S. forces have done good somewhere, some time.  If so, I can't place it.  (Oh yes, they guarded Black children going to school a long time ago.)

Libby
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: C.J. Minster 
  To: National Middle East ; Int ME Committee 
  Sent: Wednesday, July 23, 2008 1:38 PM
  Subject: NYT editorial on US assistance to Isr-Pal security...


  Does WILPF international, WILPF Palestine, or WILPF Israel have a position on American military personnel involvement, specifically in the use of American (or other international forces) to train Palestinian security forces?

  A friend emailed me the following op-ed.

  The New York Times
  July 22, 2008
  Op-Ed Contributor
  Help the Palestinians Help Us
  By ANTHONY H. CORDESMAN
  Washington

  HAVING just returned from the Middle East, I find it hard to have much
  optimism about peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

  Israel sees Hamas's control of Gaza as a situation it cannot do
  anything about, a weak and divided Palestinian Authority on the West
  Bank, increased arms smuggling and a growing threat from Israeli
  Arabs. Palestinians see a steady growth in Israeli settlements and
  restrictions, a weak Israeli government and faltering international
  assistance. And all sides seem to see Secretary of State Condoleezza
  Rice's visits as an end-of-administration effort in résumé building.

  There is, however, one potential chance to move forward. It centers on
  an American-led mission, based in Jerusalem, that is trying to build
  new security forces on the West Bank that will support stabilization
  efforts by the Palestinian Authority's president, Mahmoud Abbas,
  prevent a Hamas takeover there and end the corruption and abuse of the
  older intelligence forces, Yasir Arafat's Mukhabarat.

  The importance of this effort cannot be overstated: unless there are
  effective Palestinian security forces, Israel will never trust in a
  Palestinian state or be able to act on the quiet progress being made
  toward reaching a final settlement. And we've had some promising
  signs. With assistance from Jordan, Britain and Canada, the Americans
  have activated the first battalion of the so-called Presidential
  Guard, and it's had some success in bringing order to the refugee camp
  at Jenin. There are more battalions to come, and a real possibility
  that this aid effort could create effective new security forces.

  As became all too clear on my visit to Israel, however, this
  American-led effort is being crippled by decisions within the State
  Department. The small mission, called the office of the United States
  Security Coordinator and under the leadership of Lt. Gen. Keith
  Dayton, is effectively locked into a building in Jerusalem. While it's
  a military mission, the State Department and the consulate in
  Jerusalem are in charge of Palestinian affairs and General Dayton's
  advisory teams.

  There are several reasons for this — from not wanting the American
  government to appear to be favoring any faction in a complicated
  situation to good old-fashioned turf wars — but the result is that the
  Dayton team has to rely on British and Canadian officials and private
  contractors to do its work in the field and develop critical personal
  relationships with Palestinian officers and officials. In fact, even
  the American military attachés at the embassy are forbidden by the
  State Department to go into the West Bank and Gaza to carry out
  liaison efforts with Palestinians or develop human intelligence on the
  threat of Hamas.

  Admittedly, letting the American military take on a greater direct
  role raises risks. All of those involved know they will be targets of
  violence and may pay with their lives. Many in the Israeli forces and
  government fear that any American military presence in the West Bank
  would undermine Israel's status there and become, in effect, direct
  military support for the Palestinians from Washington. And Mr. Abbas
  has failed to abolish the older Palestinian security services like the
  Mukhabarat, which specialize in corruption, repression and
  incompetence, and will resist the new Palestinian units.

  There is, however, no lack of courage among the American military
  personnel, and they know they cannot succeed without freedom of
  movement, embedding with fledgling Palestinian security units, and
  forming personal relations with Mr. Abbas's officers.

  It's a shame that at such a pivotal moment in the peace negotiations,
  a key barrier to the first real step toward peace — and an effective
  war on terrorism in the West Bank and Gaza — is a set of State
  Department decisions.

  Anthony H. Cordesman is a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic
  and International Studies.


  -- 
  ------------
  C.J. Minster
  Intl Communications Committee Convener
  Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
  railing against the military industrial complex since WWI
  http://www.wilpf.org

  ~Social Upheaval~
  political analysis from a feminist, activist perspective
  http://www.socialupheaval.com

  ~angelheaded hipster~
  cotton candy for the brain
  http://www.angelheadedhipster.com 
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