The United States Of Palestine

Eve of Destruction
Barry McGuire

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reacts as she is greeted by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad (L) upon her arrival in the flashpoint West Bank city of Jenin November 8, 2008. Rice toured Jenin today where hundreds of Palestinian police have deployed as part of US-sponsored peace efforts. The top US diplomat met Fayyad together with the US security coordinator in the region, General Keith Dayton, who has helped to revamp the Palestinian Authority's security forces.

MAY 2007:

OUR FRIENDS THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION

More ominous, Israel will be forced to provide arms, ammunition and equipment to PA security forces in an “immediate and ongoing” manner, whenever U.S. Maj.-Gen. Dayton “requests” it.

The Butchers, the Baker and the Dread Malaise Maker, pushing Jews into the sea...

Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, the top American security envoy to the Palestinian Authority, has criticized Israel for its failure to help define a "security horizon" for the Palestinians and its refusal to ease conditions in the Palestinian Authority.

In his reports to Washington, Dayton says forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas have improved their performance in recent battles with Hamas.

Dayton told the United States Congress and Department that the security force loyal to Abbas was demonstrating satisfactory progress and that he detected signs that Hamas was weakening. Among other things, Abbas loyalists had blocked a Hamas offensive despite a high number of fatalities in their ranks, and closed two tunnels used for smuggling arms from Egypt, Dayton said.

JUNE 2007:

Behold the Deafening Silence Amid the Roaring of Beasts

Tension between the Bush administration and Israel have intensified of late because Israel will not adopt a U.S. benchmark strategy devised by U.S.security coordinator in the Palestinian territories, General Keith Dayton.

This is what the LORD says: Israel is my firstborn son. ~ Exodus 4:22

Well, I don't know about you.... but when I read this, I wanted to know just exactly whoTF IS Keith Dayton, anyway? Once again I implore the reader to pay very careful attention to the language used throughout the document. He who controls language controls thought.....and words make worlds.

SNIP

Remarks by U.S. Security Coordinator LTG Keith Dayton
Update on the Israeli-Palestinian Situation and Palestinian Assistance Programs
House Foreign Affairs
Middle East and South Asia Sub-Committee

SNIP

PA sources said U.S. representatives responsible for the development of the PA security forces have been mentoring Palestinian commanders. They said senior PA commanders have received at least tens of thousands of dollars each from the United States for high-profile operations meant to demonstrate the PA security commitment. “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.”

Grounded in Fantasy says Glick. Compliciots, says The Spleen

SEPTEMBER 2008:

From the "Dangerous Strangelets " Post:

One more time: THE US GOVERNMENT DOES NOT RECOGNIZE ALL OF JERUSALEM AS BELONGING TO ISRAEL

March 2006: DoD News Briefing with Gen. James L. Jones

A new joint Israeli-Palestinian industrial park will be built next year in the northern West Bank under the auspices of the American ambassador to Israel James Cunningham, the U.S. special envoy to the Mideast General James L. Jones and the U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority Keith Dayton, Israeli daily Haaretz quoted Army Radio as reporting on Monday.

Spleen Flashbacks: WHOTF is Keith Dayton and why should you care?

December 2008:

MPH & ETA: Dancing at the Glow Ball
Read it all

Keith Dayton

NOW...
MAY 10, 2009,
in the left- wing magazine
"THE NATION":

US General Builds A Palestinian Army

Last Thursday, in what was billed as his very first on-the-record address, Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, U.S. security coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority, spoke to the 2009 Soref Symposium organized by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. WINEP, of course, is the chief thinktank for the Washington-based Israel lobby.

And in his talk, Gen. Dayton delivered an important warning.

First, the background. For the past three and a half years, Dayton has lived and worked in Jerusalem and across the West Bank, overseeing the creation of three Palestinian battalions of troops, hand-picked in the West Bank, trained at an academy in Jordan, and then deployed in the occupied territory.

The three 500-man battalions are intended to grow, to as many as ten battalions. Their mission, he said, is to "create a Palestinian state." Recognizing that many in the WINEP audience were not exactly enamored with the idea of an independent Palestine, Dayton told his audience: "If you don't like the idea of a Palestinian state, you won't like the rest of this talk."

From the detailed description provided by Dayton, it's clear that the Palestinian forces he's enabling could certainly be accused of carrying out the self-policing of the West Bank for the Israelis. Because the West Bank is, after all, occupied by Israel and riddled with illegal settlements besides -- plus beset by a surrounding wall, 600-plus intrusive checkpoints, and a network of Jews-only highways -- the Palestinian troops are utterly at the mercy of the Israelis. Each recruit is vetted by US security forces (i.e, the CIA), then vetted by Shin Bet, the domestic intelligence arm of Israel, and then by Jordan's super-efficient intelligence service, before they begin their training in Jordan. Dayton made it quite clear that the Palestinian units thus trained are primarily deployed against two targets in the West Bank: against criminal gangs, and against Hamas.

So far, they've received $161 million is US funding.

Dayton described how, during the Israeli assault on Gaza last December and January, the West Bank remained quiet -- even though some analysts were predicting an upsurge of sympathy for Hamas, which controls Gaza, along with violence, even a third intifada. "None of these predictions came true," said the general, who added that the Palestinian battalions allowed peaceful demonstrations of solidarity with Hamas, but kept the lid on violent actions. Israel, he said, "kept a low profile," and not a single Palestinian was killed in the West Bank during the three-week carnage in Gaza.

Most of the work he's done, Dayton said, occurred in the West Bank after the June, 2007, Hamas takeover in Gaza. "What we have created are 'new men,'" he added.

Now for the warning. Recognizing that by organizing and training thousands of Palestinian troops, professionally led, he is creating in effect a nationalist army, Dayton warned the 500 or so WINEP listeners that the troops can only be strung along for just so long. "With big expectations, come big risks," said Dayton. "There is perhaps a two-year shelf life on being told that you're creating a state, when you're not." To my ears, at least, his subtle warning is that if concrete progress isn't made toward a Palestinian state, the very troops Dayton is assembling could rebel.

Dayton was responding to a question from Paul Wolfowitz, the neoconservative former deputy secretary of defense, who now hangs his hat at the neocon-dominated American Enterprise Institute. "How many Palestinians see your people as collaborators?" Wolfowitz asked. In answering Wolfowitz, the general acknowledged that Hamas and its sympathizers accuse the Palestinian battalions of being "enforces of the Israeli occuption." But he stressed that each one of them believes that he is fighting for an independent Palestine. The unstated message: the United States and Israel had better deliver. Thus the two year warning. Which, to me, sounds spot on with the Obama administration's timetable.

One more thing: General Dayton signed up for another stint in the West Bank. And how long did he agree to serve? Yes--two years.

Muse
Apocalypse Please