Israel’s Enforcer
by Stephen Lendman
Israel enforces rogue state harshness. Rule of law principles are spurned. Even Jewish rights are marginalized. Palestinians have none.
Occupation ruthlessness terrorizes them. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad serve illegitimately.
Israel manipulated the process to elect Abbas and keep him in charge. Despite virtually no popular support, Fayyad was appointed.
Enforcing Israeli authority is policy. Abbas is a longtime collaborator. Duplicity defines his agenda. Israel and Washington know he’s reliable. They support him to serve their interests.
Abbas took credit as Oslo’s architect. Israel controlled the process. Sellout defined it. Israel got what it wanted. Palestinians were shut out. Abbas sold out. He agreed to unilateral surrender. So did Arafat.
In April, Al-Ahram contributor Hasan Afif El-Hasan headlined “Twenty lost years,” saying:
Post-Oslo, nothing changed. Israel’s military protects settlers and terrorizes Palestinians. PA security forces violate the rights of their own people “in accordance with guidelines and direct orders established by Israel.”
“The path the PA chose since Oslo has not led to Palestinian independence and it has weakened the Palestinian national movement.”
“The PA does not govern its own territory, and became for all intents and purposes the administrator of an Israeli protectorate while Israel carries on with ethnic cleansing of Jerusalem, colonising the West Bank and enforcing the criminal blockade on Gaza.”
Abbas and Fayyad replicate US-controlled puppet authority in Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and elsewhere. PA security forces prevent and/or contain peaceful demonstrations.
During Cast Lead, anti-Israeli protests were prohibited. Abbas tried to prevent war crime investigations. He won’t permit another Intifada. He targets Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine supporters.
Historian Beshara Doumani recently visited the West Bank. He said PA crackdowns prevent Palestinians from expressing views freely. He called Nablus “a broken city.” Resistance is confronted and quashed.
Sociology Professor Khalil Nakhleh calls PA/Israeli cooperation frightening. Palestinian elites place their interests above collective ones.
PA leaders work cooperatively with a “Jewish-ethno-security regime.” They rule Palestine “from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean….” What chance have Palestinians when top officials representing them sell out to Israeli authority?
On May 10, the Palestinian Center for Human Rights reported (PCHR) Palestinian security forces broke up “the concluding colloquium of the Palestine Festival of Literature.”
Free expression and opinion were violated. So was the right to peacefully assemble. Palestinian law affirms rights too important to deny.
Arab poets and writers attended. Egyptian blogger ‘Amru ‘Izzat spoke about liberty. Security forces cut off electricity and told attendees to leave. Those refusing were confronted. Cameras were confiscated. Chaos resulted. Later, the colloquium resumed at al-Quds International Hotel.
In early May, PA security forces arrested dozens of journalists and activists voicing dissent. Al Haq director Shawan Jabarin said:
“There are many people I’m sure that are afraid and will count to ten before they say anything. Maybe they’ll push people to speak underground instead of expressing their opinions freely.”
“I think they’re using different words here and there, just to undermine these people in the eyes of the public and to say that they are creating trouble and creating divisions. It’s a political judgement more than (something) illegal.”
Palestinian Attorney General Ahmad al-Maghni hasn’t “protect(ed) the freedoms and the rights of the people in the face of arbitrary detention, instead of arresting people.”
“Here, we see him acting quickly” and irresponsibly. “(A)t the same time, he’s closing his ears and his eyes on the crimes going on.”
“He is not taking into his mind that the law that he is using was approved in 1960 and these days, we are in 2012 and the main principle now in all the world is freedom of expression.”
Jabarin referred to the long outdated 1960 Jordanian Penal Code.
An-Najah University student Hasan Abbadi was jailed for days and fined for “creating disunity.” Others were targeted for Facebook and other social network comments.
Abbas ruthlessly targets truth. Criticizing PA authority isn’t tolerated. Web sites were blocked. Al Mughani ordered them shut. Internet freedom’s threatened. So are peaceful assembly and other rights.
Palestinians should ask who’s side are they on? It’s simple knowing and should mobilize them to react. Otherwise, current policies will continue and worsen.
Palestinian Security Forces Trained to Serve Israel
From 2005 until he retired in October 2010, Lt. General Keith Dayton served as US Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority head (USSC). Lt. General Michael Moeller replaced him. He reports directly to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The State Department says he “directs all facets of U.S. security sector assistance to the Palestinian Authority and synchronizes international supporting efforts.”
It’s part of Washington’s pro-Israel/anti-Palestinian agenda. USSC created, built, trains and funds a 25,000-strong PA force. Hundreds of millions are spent. At issue is Institutionalizing hard-line control. Israel’s own security operations are supplemented.
Dayton built and renovated garrisons, training colleges, Interior Ministry facilities, and security headquarters. In January 2010, a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report addressed “US Security Assistance to the Palestinian Authority,” saying:
In late 2004, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Abbas created the USSC for “civil security and counterterrorism purposes.”
Palestinian recruits train at Jordan’s International Police Training Center (JIPCA) near Amman. Instruction includes crowd control, confronting “terrorist networks,” and consolidating “competent, defactionalized civilian control” over the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Hamas controls besieged Gaza. Perhaps Israel plans another war to change things.
At issue is maintaining militarized occupation control, confronting challenges to Israeli authority, serving imperial Washington, and denying Palestinians freedom and control over their own lives.
PA security forces assist Israeli harshness. Five PA security organizations operate: the National Security Forces (including military intelligence), Palestinian Civil Police, Preventive Security Organization, Presidential Guard, and General Intelligence Service.
Together they comprise the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF). The PA interior minister controls them. He’s beholden to Israel. So are Abbas and Fayyad. Palestinians lose out. They have two enemies – Israel and their own West Bank government.
USSC is a multinational organization comprised of military officers and civilian personnel. Its core staff numbers about 45, including Americans, Canadians, Brits, and Turks. Operations are based in Jerusalem and Ramallah.
US private military contractors (PMCs), including DynCorp., are involved. So are around two dozen US and foreign law enforcement and security training specialists, as well as seven US and foreign technical advisors with expertise in security and Middle East affairs, strategic planning and organizational development, contracts and grants, procurement, logistics, and finance.
At issue is enforcing occupation harshness, denying Palestinian self-determination, and eliminating challenges to Israeli control. Palestinian security forces target their own people. Abbas and Fayyad collaborate for whatever benefits they derive.
Israel has final say on policy. Washington’s a reliable partner. Palestinians are left out and exploited. They’re on their own against two rogue states denying their legitimate rights. Liberation depends on restoring them.
Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.
His new book is titled “How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War”
http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html
Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/the-progressive-news-hour/.
