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Middle East Analysis

U.S. Supplies Fail to Get Through to Palestinian Police Recruits

By Griff Witte and Ellen Knickmeyer (The Washington Post)

posted on 05/05/08

The first class of Palestinian security officers trained under a multimillion-dollar U.S. program to strengthen the Palestinian Authority is deploying to one of the West Bank’s most restive cities without promised supplies of body armor, helmets or even flashlights after Israel blocked a shipment of equipment. The shortage in U.S.-funded supplies threatens the Palestinian government’s ability to provide security in the West Bank, which Israel has made a condition of future withdrawals from the occupied territories. There have also been significant problems with the training, including a final round that one American involved in the program described as "a complete fiasco."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice … has said the training program is an essential part of the Bush administration’s push for an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement before it leaves office in January.

But Israel has traditionally viewed Palestinian security forces as potential adversaries, even though this training class is affiliated with the moderate Palestinian government that serves as the Jewish state’s counterpart in peace talks. In this case, Israel failed to approve delivery of the requested supplies in time for the deployment, according to senior Palestinian officials. …

Last summer, the U.S. Congress approved $28 million for an initial program to train and equip roughly 1,000 men as part of an $86 million appropriation for Palestinian security. But the training program has been beset by delays and a shortage of resources. Much of the training equipment—including vehicles, two-way radios, dummy pistols, rifles and batons—arrived after the first training sessions had begun. Israel also placed restrictions on the kind of equipment and curriculum available to the Palestinian trainees. …

Steve Smith, a veteran of international police training programs, resigned from this one in protest over what he said was inadequate training, equipment and curriculum being provided to the Palestinians. In a letter to Rep. Nita M. Lowey (D-N.Y.), Smith said the students received "communication training with no radios, drivers training with no vehicles, mounted patrol tactics without vehicles, no course handouts or student manuals." The recruits, he wrote, were not ready for deployment. "I believe in the peace process, in the two-state solution, and in General Dayton’s idea that a viable Palestinian security force is necessary for peace," Smith wrote. "Unfortunately, the training program will not achieve that goal without significant additional training." Access the full article>>