Warning: Undefined array key "rbname" in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 14
Hello !

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Hamas condemns PA-Israel talks

2010-11-29

[Iran Press TV] Hamas, always the voice of sweet reason, has condemned any direct negotiations between the Paleostinian Authority (PA) and Israel, saying the talks will not bring Paleostinians peace but humiliation. In a presser in the Syrian capital on Saturday, Hamas Political Bureau chief Khaled Meshaal said the US-sponsored talks would lead to a sell-off of Paleostinian rights, Rooters reported. Meshaal pointed to the huge challenges the resistance is facing, especially in the West Bank, which is controlled by the rival Fatah party, and described the resistance to Israeli occupation as the only way to keep the Paleostinian cause alive. "Our inalienable rights are threatened with extinction if the scene in the West Bank does not change by launching the resistance against the Israeli occupation and the settlements," he told news hounds in Damascus. He also insisted that the Paleostinian people would never relinquish their legitimate right to their land. "The Paleostinian people will not be bribed. They will not be cowed by Dayton's forces," he said, in a reference to PA forces trained by US Lieutenant General Keith Dayton. "We are not talking about a business deal or making a profit. Our only capital is the land, identity and dignity," Meshaal stated. "When there is such an imbalance of power, negotiations become a process of daily humiliation," he noted. Hamas says all the territories occupied by Israel since the 1967 Six-Day War must be returned and all Paleostinian refugees must be granted the right to return to their homeland.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel: US Consulate car tried to run over checkpoint guard

2009-12-25

A dispute is rumbling between Israel and the US Consulate in Jerusalem after a US diplomatic car allegedly tried running over a Defense Ministry security guard recently at an IDF checkpoint in the West Bank. The car had been stopped after the occupants refused to present identification papers. World Israel is also furious that one of the consulate cars was found to have transported a Palestinian without permits between Jerusalem and the West Bank. The identification of American diplomats from the consulate at IDF checkpoints has been a major sticking point for several years. In January 2008, the Civil Administration of Judea and Samaria filed complaints with the Foreign Ministry after both US Security Coordinator Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton and then-consul-general Jacob Walles refused to roll down their windows or open their car doors and show identification papers at a checkpoint. However, Israel's ire reached a new level after an incident on November 13 in which a five-car convoy of consulate vehicles with diplomatic plates arrived at the Gilboa crossing. According to a detailed official Israel Police description of the incident obtained exclusively by The Jerusalem Post, the drivers refused to identify themselves or open a window or door. The drivers, according to the report, purposely blocked the crossing, tried running over one of the Israeli security guards stationed there and made indecent gestures at female guards. The entire incident was documented by cameras at the crossing. Some things never change---I remember incidents with US consulate cars from first Intifada. Basically, these people are Rachel Corries with diplo passports. Eventually, one of them will be dead and there will be enormous American indignation.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israeli forces detain 3 more PA security officers

2009-11-22

[Ma'an] Israeli forces raided the West Bank town of Jayyus northeast of Qalqiliya on Saturday morning and detained five Palestinians including three Palestinian Authority Security Services officers, officials said. On Friday, four officers and one commander with the Palestinian Intelligence Services were detained from the Salfit area. High-level talks between Israel and Palestine were held throughout the day, with alleged US pressure added shortly before noon. Palestinian security forces are trained by US General Keith Dayton. The five men were released late Friday night, Palestinian security sources confirmed. It was not clear whether the second round of detentions targeting PA forces was related to the first incident. The head of the Israeli civil liaison department said his Israeli counterparts denied knowledge of the detention of any PA security officers in Qalqiliya on Saturday. Eyewitnesses in Jayyus said the invading Israeli forces entered an internet cafe and ransacked the site Friday night, temporarily detaining all the patrons inside. After midnight several military vehicles stormed the town under the cover of heavy gunfire and stun grenades. Locals said they believed the men were detained from their homes. The officers detained in the Saturday morning raid were identified by Palestinian security sources as: Ayyoub Khalid from the Palestinian National Security Services Muhammad Shamasna from the Palestinian National Security Services Anwar Mustafa from the Palestinian Authority Military Police Two civilians were also detained, in what may be unrelated events. The civilians were identified as Jihad Shamasna and Nour Baydha. All five of the men detained by Israeli forces were taken to unknown destinations. Palestinian officials said they believe the actions were the realization of recent threats by Israel to take unilateral steps against the PA, likely as a response to government refusal to sit at the peace-talk table with Israel. The Israeli news site Ynet said the men may have been detained for their involvement in investigations against a man suspected of collaborating with Israel. The site quoted an unnamed Palestinian security sources as saying the Israel demanded the suspected collaborator, resident of Dir Istia village where two of the security officers were detained, be released unharmed.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Dayton to get funding to train PA forces

2009-06-13

[Jerusalem Post Middle East] An Obama administration plan to train Palestinian forces and deploy them in the West Bank will receive its requested funding, Congress was expected to decide Thursday as Israeli officials said that the US had formulated a two-year plan to train a total of 10 battalions. According to the decision, the 2009 fiscal year Supplemental Appropriations Bill will include $109 million for projects directed by the United States Security Coordination in Israel Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton. Congress is also currently evaluating an administration request to receive an additional $100m. to continue and expand the training in 2010. Dayton has already overseen the training and deployment of three Palestinian battalions in the West Bank. The US-directed training is conducted in Jordan. Israeli officials said Thursday that a request by Dayton to train another battalion had recently been approved and that additional requests - for more battalions - were expected. The officials said that Dayton's plan appeared to include 10 battalions that would be trained and deployed in the West Bank over the next two years. Sources in the IDF said that while the battalions would not pose a strategic threat to Israel, their training and subsequent deployment in the West Bank would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. The recent crackdown on Hamas cells in Kalkilya, the IDF sources said, was part of a Palestinian Authority effort to show the US and Israel that it was prepared to take over security responsibility of additional areas in the West Bank. In the past, battalions trained there have been deployed in Jenin, Jericho, Bethlehem and Hebron. Under the Jenin model, the IDF has scaled back operations in that city, removed checkpoints in the area, permitted the deployment of US-trained Palestinian forces and allowed Israeli Arabs into the city to boost the local economy. In addition, Israel and the PA are working on the construction of an industrial park.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Bloodshed becomes focus of PA-Hamas relations

2009-06-02

Sunday's confrontation between an armed Hamas cell and Palestinian Authority policemen in Kalkilya shows that the Islamic movement still has a military presence in the West Bank - one that it is hoping to use to topple Mahmoud Abbas's regime there. PA security officials said the two Hamas operatives who were killed in the clash, Muhammad Samman and Muhammad Yassin, headed a cell that possessed large amounts of weapons, including explosives and automatic rifles, some of which had been hidden in a basement of a mosque in the city. The weapons, according to the officials, were supposed to be used by Hamas against members of the PA security forces and Fatah and PA officials. The officials revealed that Hamas members had long been collecting information about PA security officials and installations in the context of what they alleged was a scheme to stage a "coup" similar to the one that the movement carried out in the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2007. But while the elimination of Hamas's Kalkilya cell may have foiled or hindered the movement's attempts to undermine the PA, the incident is seen as the final nail in the coffin of Palestinian unity talks. Over the past few months, the Egyptians have been working very hard to convince Hamas and Fatah to end their differences and agree on the formation of a new unity government. At least four sessions of negotiations between the two parties have ended in failure. But this did not dissuade the Egyptians from pursuing their efforts. Omar Suleiman, head of Egypt's General Intelligence Service who has been overseeing the talks, had summoned representatives of the two parties to another [and final] session of talks in Cairo in the coming days. Suleiman was hoping to employ heavy pressure on Fatah and Hamas to end their power struggle and sit together in a unity government. Hamas and Fatah officials agreed on Sunday that it would be "almost impossible" under the current circumstances to resume the unity talks in Cairo. Hamas representatives said they were seriously considering pulling out from the talks, while Fatah accused the Islamic movement of declaring war on its men in the Gaza Strip. Hamas leaders and spokesmen are now openly calling on their supporters in the West Bank to rise up against Abbas and his prime minister, Salaam Fayad. Some went as far as accusing the two of high treason for collaborating with Israel - an allegation that is normally punished with death in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Hamas is convinced that the killing of its men is one of the results of Abbas's recent visit to Washington, where he held talks with US President Barack Obama, and presented him with a "detailed plan" to wipe out the movement. Hamas also believes the incident in Kalkilya, as well as the ongoing crackdown by the PA security forces on Hamas supporters in the West Bank, should be seen in the context of efforts by Abbas and Fayad to show Israel, the US and the EU that they are fulfilling their obligations under the road map by fighting terrorism. Yet while Abbas and Fayad may win words of support from Jerusalem, Washington and European capitals for joining the war on Islamic fundamentalism, it's likely that the two are almost certain to lose points among their own constituents. Many Palestinians have long been drawing parallels between the two men and the former pro-Israel South Lebanon Army headed by Antoine Lahad. Many Arab media outlets refer to the PA security forces in the West Bank as the Dayton Forces, a reference to US security coordinator Keith Dayton, who has been entrusted with overseeing the reconstruction and training of these forces to prevent Hamas from extending its control beyond the Gaza Strip. Judging from the actions and fiery rhetoric of both sides, it's obvious that Hamas and Fatah are far from achieving any form of reconciliation between them. Talk about reconciliation has, for now, been replaced with talk about confrontation and bloodshed.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

IDF may let PA security forces police Tulkarm

2009-05-23

[Jerusalem Post Middle East] A day after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with US President Barack Obama at the White House, the IDF got to work and began reviewing an American request to allow more Palestinian soldiers to travel to Jordan for training, as well as expansion of the "Jenin model" to other parts of the West Bank. Defense officials said Israel was considering a request by Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton, the US security coordinator to Israel and the Palestinian Authority, to allow three battalions of Palestinian soldiers - close to 1,000 men - to go to Jordan for training. In the past, battalions trained there have been deployed in Jenin, Jericho, Bethlehem and Hebron. Defense officials also said Israel was considering expanding the Jenin model to the Tulkarm and Kalkilya areas. Under the Jenin model, the IDF has scaled back operations in that city, removed checkpoints in the area, permitted the deployment of US-trained Palestinian forces and allowed Israeli Arabs into the city to boost the local economy. In addition, Israel and the PA are working on the construction of an industrial zone. The Palestinians have asked that the model be implemented in Ramallah, the officials said, adding that the request was under review. By the time the new battalions have completed their training, a decision would be made on the location, the officials said.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

US Admits Training Palestinian Armed Forces While PA Negotiates With Hamas

2009-05-19

Jerusalem -- The American military now openly admits providing military training to Palestinian military forces. But not like Hezbollah's training Hamas? A U.S. military official, Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, assigned by the United States to be a "security coordinator," has been appointed to train 1,500 Palestinian military personnel. They will be available for "immediate deployment" in the area between Jenin and Nablus, less than an hour from Israel's populated coastal plain. He discussed his mission at the Washington Institute for Near East Studies last week.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

U.S. Gaza pledge depends on recognition of Israel

2009-03-12

About $900 million pledged by the United States to the Palestinians will be withdrawn if the expected Palestinian Authority coalition government between Fatah and Hamas does not recognize Israel's right to exist, Western and Israeli diplomats said yesterday. B.O. and Hillary will give in eventually. It'll be "for the children." During her visit to the region last week Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas against forming a coalition with Hamas that will not meet the expectations of the Quartet. Clinton told Abbas that Congress will not approve funding of a Palestinian government that does not recognize Israel's right to exist and renounce violence. She added that if those requirements are not met the U.S.-funded program under the supervision of General Keith Dayton training PA security forces would be the first to be axed. Fatah and Hamas are currently engaged in talks intended to reestablish ties between the Palestinian factions that were severed two years ago when Hamas forcibly took over the Gaza Strip, routing Fatah-backed PA security forces. Clinton discussed the issue of forming a Palestinian coalition with Fatah representatives, who told her that the new government would consist of non-affiliated officials whose chief task will be to prepare the Palestinian territories for new general elections. She reportedly told the officials she believed holding new elections was secondary to building the bureaucracy of the Palestinian Authority. The Obama administration is adamant in maintaining the previous U.S. presidential administration's position of boycotting Hamas. Two weeks ago Clinton said lifting the boycott would damage attempts to reach peace in the region.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

Israel to allow 700 additional armed PA troops into Hebron

2008-10-13

The Palestinian Authority is expected to deploy a battalion of security forces to the West Bank city of Hebron Friday, Palestinian sources said Sunday. The move will be coordinated with Israel, and the 700 troops will handle security operations among the city's Palestinian population. Israeli security forces confirmed an agreement is in the works, but said the Palestinian timetable is somewhat optimistic. If the Palestinian sources are correct, the troops will move into their new quarters Friday, which falls during the intermediate days of the Sukkot holiday - when thousands of Israeli Jews are expected to visit the Israeli-controlled territory in Hebron, especially the Cave of the Patriarchs. The armed battalion is the second unit of the Palestinian National Security Forces to undergo American training in Jordan, under the supervision of the U.S. security coordinator in the region, Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton. It has 650 to 700 soldiers and officers, and 150 vehicles. Samih al-Sifi, the commander of the security forces, said the deployment does not mean the Palestinian Authority is taking security responsibility for the Palestinian part of Hebron. He said Israel authorized the PA to restore order and security in the city but that there would be no wide-scale operations, only focused ones. He said the operations would begin only after Sukkot, on October 22. Some 600 to 700 Palestinian police generally patrol Hebron, and doubling that number - especially since the new troops are well-trained - can be expected to improve the PA's hold on the city.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

IDF: Jenin forces not fighting terror

2008-06-15

Hours after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Jerusalem on Sunday, top defense officials and IDF officers slammed a recently-launched US initiative, under which Palestinian soldiers have deployed in Nablus and Jenin. According to the officials, since some 600 Palestinian soldiers were allowed to deploy in Jenin last month, terrorist activity has increased in the West Bank city. On Sunday morning, a 20-kilogram explosive device detonated next to an Israeli military force operating in the city without causing any casualties. Sources in the IDF Central Command said that the large bomb was set off by an advanced detonation system. "The PA forces in the city are not combating the terrorists," one source said. "They are taking action to enforce law and order but they are doing nothing about terror which has grown in the past month since they deployed in Jenin." Another defense official said that even those terror suspects that were arrested by the PA forces were usually released days or even hours later. "There is no effective judicial system in the city," the official said. A top officer in the Central Command also warned that weapons the US was providing to the PA forces were finding their way to Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists in Jenin as well as in Nablus, where 3,000 PA policemen and soldiers have deployed over the past year. In addition, terrorists have infiltrated the PA police and military ranks, he said. The training of the force in Jenin and Nablus has been overseen by Lt.-Gen. Keith Dayton, the US Security Coordinator to Israel and the PA. Dayton has overseen the deployment in Nablus up close and was also involved in the recent deployment of PA forces in Jenin.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

U.S. giving millions to Palestinian military

2008-06-02

The Middle East Newsline has confirmed that the Bush administration, driven by a 2009 deadline for an independent and sovereign Palestinian state, has been transferring millions of dollars in cash to Palestinian Authority (PA) military commanders. "Every major operation is preceded and concluded by cash transfers to Palestinian commanders at a variety of levels," a PA security source said. "Some of these commanders have already become rich just over the last six months alone." PA commanders have quietly acknowledged that their forces were unprepared to battle dissidents of the Fatah movement as well as Hamas and Islamic Jihad. But they said that U.S. security coordinator Lt. Gen Keith Dayton has been pressuring the PA to demonstrate its ability to take over security responsibility from Israel throughout Judea and Samaria. The result, the sources said, have been several well-publicized PA troop deployments in Jenin and Nablus over the last six months. In each case, the PA undertook one or two operations, attended by the Israeli and foreign media, to tout Palestinian security capabilities. "When the cameras left, the security situation returned to what it had been before," another security source said. "But the PA commanders received envelopes full of U.S. dollars." In Nablus, the sources said, discipline has declined as officers outnumber soldiers. They said 300 officers and 200 soldiers have been deployed in Nablus since late 2007. In Jenin, the PA deployed 600 National Security Force and Presidential Guard troops under the command of Maj. Gen. Suleiman Umran. The troops, the sources said, were rushed from a training program in Jordan to battle suspected Palestinian insurgents and, in their first operations, began shooting civilians. "It was chaos," a PA security officer recalled. "At one point, field officers called the commander and said one of the shot civilians was dying. The commander said 'Let him die. I don't care.' Another officer with the commander learned that this man was his cousin and began shouting at the commander to take the injured man to the hospital." The PA has replaced most of its command structure with those loyal to Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. They said this has alienated many veteran commanders who have resisted Mr. Fayyad's authority. "Dayton has helped install a whole new set of commanders who are loyal to the United States and by extension Fayyad," a PA security source said. "The old guys are gone and the new commanders get paid for each operation that satisfies Dayton." British and French intelligence agencies have also been helping in the effort to enhance PA security forces. What this means is that there are entrenched, Western-trained Palestinian troops in the hills overlooking Israel's population centers, from Netanya to Tel Aviv on the coastal plain to Jerusalem itself. The latent and unexpressed fear in Israel is that Netanya, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem will soon feel the brunt of light artillery attacks from Judea and Samaria, much the way that Sderot and Ashkelon have suffered from Gaza-based artillery attacks.

Link

Israel-Palestine-Jordan

New US-trained Palestinian police bested by handful of terrorists

2008-05-21

Hundreds of so-called "elite" Palestinian police officers trained and equipped by the US have been failing miserably in their efforts to root out handfuls of terrorists in the Samarian towns of Jenin and Nablus. US military advisor to the Palestinian Authority, General Keith Dayton personally oversaw the training of the paramilitary police, and then pressured Israel to let them take over security control of Jenin and Nablus as a test case to determine the Palestinians' ability to fulfill their security obligations. But Israeli military officials that have been monitoring the progress of the new Palestinian forces told WorldNetDaily this week that they are proving impotent against the terrorist infrastructures embedded in those towns. According to the Israelis, hundreds of Palestinian police have been sent in several times over the past few weeks to flush out and arrest small groups of terrorists, but have tucked tail and retreated after coming under fire on each occasion. In the most embarrassing incident, some 300 Palestinian police were repeatedly repelled by only 13 terrorist gunmen in Nablus. Incidentally, the 13 terrorists were all pardoned by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert last June on condition that they disarm and renounce violence. The Israeli officials speaking to WorldNetDaily said that in the end, the Nablus police force had no choice but to seek assistance from the Israeli army, which quickly stormed the terrorist stronghold and killed one of the terrorist leaders, while forcing the others to flee. "I don't know how they can handle security without Israel backing them up," said one of the Israelis. The land-for-peace process being pushed forward by Washington is based on the premise that the Palestinians can and will impose security control over territories surrendered to them by Israel and prevent anti-Israel terrorist violence emanating from a Palestinian state. Many Israelis have already concluded that the Palestinian Authority is incapable of fulfilling its obligations after it lost control of the Gaza Strip last year, despite significantly outnumbering its Hamas rivals.

Link

Warning: Undefined property: stdClass::$T in /data/rantburg.com/www/rantburg/pgrecentorg.php on line 132
-12 More