Great question! Will American taxpayers keep building Hamas’ army?

...Now, however, Hamas will not need to employ the tactics of its 2007 coup in Gaza, when it shot Fatah supporters in the knees and pushed them off tall buildings (yes, if you are wondering, there are still some hard feelings in Fatah over this). It can proceed more or less peacefully and even democratically to take over the PA by winning elections. So does the PA still need an army? Will the US keep training its soldiers and equipping it? Who, after all, would they fight with it?

Vic Rosenthal..
Abu Yehuda..
31 May '14..

On Monday, if we can believe Mahmoud Abbas, a Palestinian unity government will be formed by the two major factions, Fatah and Hamas. A ‘technocratic’ government will be formed immediately until elections can be held next year.

‘Technocratic’ is a great word. It suggest a government of people interested in economics, sanitation, education, etc., and not in launching rockets, kidnapping soldiers, or stuffing explosives into tunnels underneath the border. The classic technocrat is former PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, who proved too technocratic (read: opposed to corruption) even for Abbas. Somehow I’m not optimistic about finding many technocrats in either Fatah or Hamas.

Abbas claims that the policies of the new government will be the existing policies of the PA, which ostensibly include nonviolence, recognition of Israel, and adherence to prior agreements (please don’t laugh too loudly). Hamas explicitly rejects these conditions, and plans to retain its weapons and continue its “resistance.” Apparently the EU is satisfied with Abbas’ assurances and will continue supporting the PA.

What about the US? The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2012 says that

None of the funds appropriated in titles III through VI of this Act may be obligated for salaries of personnel of the Palestinian Authority located in Gaza or may be obligated or expended for assistance to Hamas or any entity effectively controlled by Hamas, any power-sharing government of which Hamas is a member, or that results from an agreement with Hamas and over which Hamas exercises undue influence.

That would seem to mean that the US will have to stop sending US taxpayer money to the Palestinian Authority (PA) as soon as the unity government is established. This is strong, aggressive language, which probably gave some members of Congress and their constituents a warm feeling when it was passed.

But the law also contains a presidential waiver clause. The President can suspend the requirement for 6 months at a time if he thinks US national security requires it. Unlike the waiver clause in the Jerusalem Embassy act of 1995, which can be renewed indefinitely (and so far, has been), this one can’t be renewed after 12 months. So theoretically, unless Hamas turns into a bunny rabbit, the US will have to stop funding the PA, training its ‘security’ forces, etc. in at most a year.

The PA manages to absorb every dollar and euro it gets, while still barely managing to stave off insurrection. It would not survive without US aid.

How America Aids Hamas Through the Palestinian Authority

David Bedein..
frontpagemag.com..
15 February '13..

On February 5, 2013, the reconstituted US House of Representatives Subcommittee on Middle East and North Africa held a subcommittee hearing on the subject of “Fatah-Hamas Reconciliation: Threatening Peace Prospects.”

Two senior expert witnesses from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy testified and expressed optimism that US trained Palestinian Security Forces, affiliated with the Fatah, will combat the Hamas terror group which competes for power in the nascent Palestinian Arab entity.

Yet the Fatah policy and attitude towards Hamas can be summarized in an exchange that I had with Fatah founder Yasser Arafat at a press conference in Oslo, on December 10, 1994, the night before Arafat became one of the recipeints of the Nobel Peace Prize.

My question: ”Mr. Arafat, Israeli Prime Minister Rabin, and Israeli Foreign Minister of Foreign Affairs Peres said a few hours ago in answer to my question, that you deserve the peace prize because you have committed yourself to crushing the Hamas terror organization.”

The answer from Yasser Arafat: “I do not understand the question. Hamas are my brothers.”

(Video) Hamas Minister Fathi Hammad, "From this place, I bring you glad tidings ...

LOTL..
28 June '12..

The video below is from footage of a Gaza police academy graduation ceremony, in which Hamas Minister of the Interior and of National Security Fathi Hammad delivered an address. The footage aired on Al-Aqsa TV on June 13, 2012.


Published on Jun 25, 2012 by MEMRITVVideos

Adam Kredo at The Washington Free Beacon sums it up quite adequately with the following:

Tobin - Palestinians Short of Ideas, Not Guns

Jonathan S. Tobin..
Commentary/Contentions..
13 May '12..

Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas is complaining that Israel is making it difficult for his security forces to obtain weapons. As the New York Times reports, Abbas claimed yesterday in a meeting with members of the left-wing J Street group that the problems his police have been encountering recently is due to their difficulty to import arms. He also dismissed the letter Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sent him imploring the Palestinian to return to direct peace talks without preconditions.

However, the claim that any holdup in arms shipments is making it impossible for the PA to fulfill its commitments to keep the peace is absurd. As a senior Israeli source told the Times there is no shortage of guns or ammunition in the West Bank. The various PA security forces are all armed to the teeth. The material Abbas wants to import from Russia and Egypt is not police equipment but armaments that would transform the PA’s forces into the sort of army the Oslo peace accords specifically forbid. Moreover, since the PA is making an alliance with the radical Islamists of Hamas rather than fighting them, what possible purpose would Abbas have for heavy weapons?

Only Palestinians Are Not Held to a Standard

Shoshana Bryen
Senior Director for Security Policy
JINSA Report #: 1,072
March 17, 2011

http://www.jinsa.org/node/2250

It appears that members of the American-trained Palestinian Security Force on the West Bank abetted the Itamar terrorists, prompting outrage over the fact that American military personnel are training Palestinian Security Forces in the first place. The outrage looks through the back end of the microscope - minimizing and magnifying the wrong things. The problem is not the training; it is the political decision-making in Washington that deliberately disconnects the Palestinian military from its political leadership.*

Regular readers know that we have long protested the training of Palestinian "police" (read "national-army-in-training") not because we are worried that individual soldiers will become individual terrorists, but because we are unsure of the nature of the government to which the security force will ultimately be loyal. Current trends are bad.

There is no "Palestine," no constitution (there remains a PLO Charter which contains the objective of removing the "Zionist entity" by force of arms); no parliament (it hasn't met since Hamas won the plurality of seats in the last legislative election and started the civil war that ejected Fatah from Gaza); and there are two entirely different and mutually murderous governing bodies controlling territory, and one of them uses American-trained "police" to ensure compliance of recalcitrant civilians.

JINSA protests training people to do what we want them to do for reasons at odds with why they want to do it. We want the Palestinian "police" to learn discipline, counter-terrorism tactics, use of sniper rifles and scopes and intelligence collection techniques so they can stop "terrorism." They want to learn it so they can take out their enemies - Hamas or Jews. We want them to build an army/security force to protect the people of a new Palestinian State. They want to build an army/security force to kill their enemies. We want to give them defense, they want to acquire offense.

And since there is a disconnect between we and they, why are Americans training them at all?

Americans train with NATO armies and with Israel because we benefit while they benefit; the ethic is not in question. Americans train the armies of countries allied with us in a variety of ways because they benefit both from the tactics of our forces and the democratic politics we bring with us - as happened with the German Bundeswher and Japanese Self Defense Forces following WWII. Sometimes it takes time - as it did in Central and South America, and as it is currently taking time in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sometimes despite our best efforts, we don't get where we, and they, want to go, as happened in South Vietnam.

The United States doesn't train the Syrian army because of the nature of the Syrian government. We don't train the Libyan, Venezuelan or Zimbabwean armies for the same reason. We don't expect the soldiers of the Democratic Republic of Congo to have the same military ethic as our military and we don't plan to work with them. Ditto China, Belarus and Iran.

Only in the case of the nascent Palestinian state, currently governed by the Palestinian Authority, has the Government of the United States suspended disbelief about the possible nasty nature of a future Palestinian regime and the objectively nasty nature of the current one. Only Palestinians are held to no standard whatsoever by our government.

That is a political problem, not a military problem. But that is the problem.

* The same is true in Lebanon, where the United States arms and trains the Lebanese Army without regard for the nature of the current Lebanese government.


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Why Abbas Wants to Kill Palestinians Who Do Businesss With Jews

Khaled Abu Toameh
Hudson New York
24 September '10

A Palestinian Authority court in the West Bank has just reaffirmed the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of selling lands to Jews.

The ruling is based on a Palestinian Authority law that prohibits Palestinians from engaging in such land deals.

The timing of the new-old ruling is of particular significance: it coincides with the launch of US-sponsored direct talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel. The Palestinian leadership is apparently trying to depict itself as the trusted guardian and defender of Arab lands.

The court ruling also proves that, contrary to claims by some circles in Washington and European capitals, the Palestinian Authority is continuing to send messages that radicalize Palestinians and promote hatred and violence.

If anything, the court verdict is seen by many Palestinians as a green light to kill "traitors" who do business with Jews.

The Palestinian law also also calls for imposing the death sentence on any Palestinian found guilty of "collaboration" with Israel.

Over the past few decades, hundreds, if not thousands, of Palestinians have been killed on suspicion of selling lands to Jews and "collaboration" with Israel.

(Read full article)

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Think Tank “U.S. Aids Terror Group At War With Israel”

Samuel Sokol
5 Towns Jewish Times
12 November 09

A new report releaed by the Center for Near East Policy Research, a Jerusalem based think-tank, discusses the possible connection between American military aid and Palestinian terrorism. The report, Implications of US Military Training of Palestinian Security Forces, was authored by center chairman David Bedein and deals with the Office of the U.S. Security Coordinator (USSC), run by Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton.

This report is especially relevant following remarks by a senior Fatah official last week, stating that the Palestinian Arabs may revert to “popular warfare.”

According to World Net Daily correspondent Aaron Klein, Palestinian fighters have made use of American training to engage in violent attacks against Israeli civilians.

Established in 2005, the USSC manages a multi-national team of advisors, whose role is to restructure the PA security forces and train personnel.

American tax dollars pay for advanced military and constabulary training for the Palestinian security forces at bases in Jericho in Israel and Giftlik in Jordan. The cost of training an entire battalion of National Security Forces (NSF) troops in Jordan is $11 million.

Since 2008 approximately 2,100 troops, enough to make four battalions, have been trained by Americans in Jordan. The American government utilizes advisors from the DynCorp International Corporation for training Palestinian forces.

(Read full article)

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