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Last update - 20:35 09/08/2008

INTERVIEW / Top U.S. general lays foundation for Palestinian state

If a Palestinian state is ever established in the West Bank, Gen. Keith Dayton will want to be remembered for playing a significant role in its establishment, as the person who helped the Palestinians to create a modern, effective and properly equipped security force. Like British officer Orde Wingate, who taught the Jewish soldiers of pre-state Israel what an army is and how to fight terror, Dayton is also laying the foundations for the "state in the making" - for the Palestinians. He feels a deep sense of mission and is confident his endeavor will succeed.

This week Dayton left on a home visit to the United States, after completing three missions: The first battalion of the rebuilt Palestinian National Security Forces, numbering 500 soldiers from the West Bank, completed four months of training in Jordan; a Presidential Guard training college is being constructed outside Jericho; and a strategic-planning department has been created in the Palestinian Authority's Interior Ministry in Ramallah, to establish decision-making and work processes. On the eve of his departure, Dayton finalized plans for a second Palestinian battalion to leave for training in Jordan, and after lengthy delays, obtained the approval of the Israeli Defense Ministry to equip the Palestinian forces with protective vests and new jeeps.

Dayton, a three-star general (one of only 35 in the U.S. Army), was posted in Jerusalem at the end of 2005 as the U.S. security coordinator in the PA. Unlike other international envoys that come for short visits, he and his staff live here and work in the field. The challenge facing him is very complicated. He must convince the Palestinians that if they manage to organize their security forces, they will be bringing statehood closer. He must show the Israelis that if they loosen their restrictions a bit, the Palestinians will prove they are a responsible neighbor, and that it is worth the Israelis' while to support the Palestinians and not focus only on Iran and the Hezbollah. He must also explain to the Congress in Washington that American taxpayers' money is not being wasted on another futile attempt at reform in the Arab world.

"I'm an American, I'm here to advance America's interests, but I'm also here because of the relationship between your country and mine," said Dayton, in an interview with Haaretz. "The U.S. wants me here to build Palestinian capacity, because we believe that this will facilitate a Palestinian state, what your government and [Ariel] Sharon and others said they wanted to see here.

"We're trying to build their capacity to govern themselves, in such a way that their territory does not become a launchpad for attacks against Israel."

The question troubling Israelis is whether that force will ever be able to take responsibility, to allow us to live without fearing rockets and without the Israel Defense Forces having to maintain a presence among the Palestinians all the time.

Dayton: "I'll give you a one-word answer, which is yes, but it is going to take time. I work with your defense forces. I understand very clearly the challenges they face. But I take great inspiration from something I heard, and I've heard more than once, from [IDF chief of staff] Gabi Ashkenazi. He says: As they do more, we will do less. My goal is to give them the capability to do more, so that the IDF will do less. And I have to assume logically that, eventually, the IDF will feel comfortable that it can leave altogether. I think they can do it."

How long will it take?

"This is my personal view, I'm not speaking for the United States. Some of that depends on Israel. We are going to work very hard to present a disciplined, right-sized Palestinian force that will support a Palestinian state. It's very important in that context that the Palestinians have a genuine political horizon that they can aspire to. I tell these young men they're building their future. I think we all should work very hard, as hard as we can, to make sure that's the truth. I think it can definitely be the truth, I meet with your senior IDF officers and I see willingness to do this.

"But at the end of the day, this is not a spectator sport for any of us. The Palestinians are on the playing field, and you're on the playing field. We all have to understand that. And I'm on the playing field. Neither Israel nor the U.S. are referees on this. And so how we interface with the other side makes a big difference. There is money programmed in the U.S. budget for this process, continuing to 2010, 2011. We don't intend to give up on this. The timing depends on my ability to create what my government wants me to create, but it also depends on interaction between what I create and the IDF and the government of Israel."

As a professional military man Dayton says he understands the logic behind the roadblocks the IDF has set up in the territories. He also understands why the roadblocks irk the Palestinians. As a diplomat, he tries to bridge the needs of the two sides.

Cobra and Dome

Keith Dayton has been in the U.S. army for 38 years, starting in the artillery corps and rising to the level of brigade commander. In 1997 he received his first administrative assignment, as U.S. defense attache to Moscow, and he later served in senior planning positions in the Pentagon and as head of the delegation on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, following the American invasion in 2003. During his travels through ruined military barracks in Iraq, he saw graffiti on the walls depicting the Dome of the Rock being strangled by a cobra symbolizing Israel. It was then that he realized how important and sensitive this issue is in the Arab world.

Dayton came to Jerusalem after the disengagement from the Gaza Strip, as a replacement for Gen. Charles Ward, who had been promoted to four-star general. His first job was to "downsize, right-size and professionalize" the PA forces in Gaza. Then Hamas won the elections, and everything got more complicated. The ban on contact with Hamas joined a prior ban on the entry of Americans to the Gaza Strip (imposed five years ago, following the murder of three American contractors in Gaza).

Congress refused to finance that first job, for fear the money would fall into Hamas hands. Dayton and his staff of Americans, Britons and Canadians tried to help PA President Mahmoud Abbas' Presidential Guard, which was operating the border crossings, and particularly in Rafah. Without any funding, however, "We didn't train or equip anybody."

Dayton and his men miscalculated the balance of power in the Gaza Strip, and when the battles between Hamas and Fatah began, in the spring of 2007, they were confident in the combat readiness of the Presidential Guard. The Hamas takeover and the collapse of Fatah, a few weeks later, surprised the Americans.

"It's very hard to know what's going on in Gaza," said Dayton. "We had a series of problems with Egyptians, Israelis and the Palestinians concerning the border crossings, and every time we had one of these meetings you'd hear alarming reports from people inside Gaza saying, you know, isn't there some way you can get us some help?"

Dayton and the administration asked Congress to transfer funds to the National Security Forces, which was the PA's main force against Hamas. Congress refused. "In retrospect, it might have been a mistake," said Dayton.

The fall of Gaza led to his job being shifted from Gaza to the West Bank. His boss, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, ordered him to rebuild the PA's forces in the West Bank. The establishment of the emergency PA government headed by Salam Fayyad lifted the political restrictions, and Congress was convinced to transfer money, for fear that the West Bank would follow in Gaza's footsteps. Dayton's aid mission received $86 million and was able to tackle its job.

Since then two more American generals have arrived in the territories: Jim Jones, who is formulating future security arrangements, and William Fraser, who is following the implementation of the U.S. road map plan. Dayton rejects out of hand any suggestions of a turf battle between the generals, and insists they are working together closely.

The work plan drafted by him with the Palestinians calls for the retraining of the Presidential Guard, and the establishment of five battalions of a revivified National Security Forces, which will operate as an armed gendarmerie alongside the "blue" police that the European Union is organizing, training and equipping. The Jordanian government offered its police-training facilities to the PA. At the same time construction began on the facility for training the Presidential Guard, and the Interior Ministry in Ramallah was set up as a professional security headquarters with foreign advisors.

The security reforms in the PA are nothing new. They were proposed six years ago, as a way to end Yasser Arafat's institutionalized anarchy of many competing security forces. Dayton diplomatically evades the question of how many such forces are operating in the PA.

"Our goal was to build capacity for the future," said Dayton.

Ultimately, there are to be three forces: the police, the National Security Force and the internal security force (i.e., the intelligence service). Veterans of Arafat's forces will be retired and gradually replaced by new, younger recruits. National security personnel will include staff from all over the West Bank, who are not territorially or clan based. The recruits for the second battalion, which will start training at the end of the month, were chosen from among thousands of volunteers.

'Building a state'

Dayton is very enthusiastic about what the Palestinians he saw at the Jordanian training base.

"The Jordanians said, after the first couple of weeks, who are these people? They're quick learners, they're disciplined, they follow orders, and they're motivated," recalled Dayton, who visited them with PA Interior Minister Abdel-Razak Yahya, a familiar figure for Israelis from the early days of the Oslo process.

"He may look like an old man," said Dayton, "but he's a young man. He gave a speech to them, which was just amazing. He told these guys, 'You're not learning how to fight the Israelis, you're not here to fight the occupation, you're here to fight the forces of disorder, the forces of crime and lawlessness inside Palestine.' He said 'armed groups,' which was his way of saying 'terrorists.' He said: If you do your job properly, we will have a state. The national project will succeed.'

"I went to the graduations," continued Dayton, "and I'm not naive. I watched them, kinda looked them in the eyes, and I'm telling you, these are new people. Now it can all go bad if political progress doesn't happen, I guess, but these are new people. They think they're building a state, and I'm pretty pleased about that."

Dayton has received an additional budget of $75 million, which he will use to train and equip two more battalions of the National Security Force in the coming year, to continue the existing projects, and to organize additional training for senior commanders of all PA security entities. His optimism is based not only on Congress' generous budget, or on the motivation of the Palestinian recruits, but on the assistance he is receiving from Israel. Its defense establishment allowed the Palestinian soldiers to leave for training in Jordan and to return quickly. The passage of 600 men through the Allenby Bridge lasted an hour and a half. All the Israeli authorities, the Border Police the IDF, the airports authority and the Shin Bet security services sent representatives to speed up the process. Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved the requests for equipment.

Dayton: "Ehud Barak himself has told me, I will not obstruct your program, because I want to see if you can pull this off."

Sources in the defense establishment say Dayton's activities are welcome and important, because the establishment of institutions of law, government and order in the PA are a foundation for the taking of responsibility.

The first attempt at deploying the new Palestinian force came in an operation meant to maintain order in Jenin. Dayton praised the PA for its decision to send the force there, and is pleased with the results.

"A year ago," says Dayton, "Jenin was the Wild West. People were running out with guns all over the place, shootouts all the time. Jenin now is a place where policemen walk the beat! And they're unafraid, and shops are open later."

Still, the cooperation with the IDF, which began with fanfare in May - the IDF even allowed the Palestinians to operate in villages right along the separation fence - has soured since then. Barak visited there two weeks ago, met with Israeli and Palestinian commanders, and commented that the work of the Palestinian force is a welcome change: not without problems, but it is progress.

Dayton met last week with GOC Central Command Maj. Gen. Gadi Shamni, who was worried about those problems. Dayton promised to work toward improving the situation with the Palestinians. He also knows it will be very difficult to rebuild the trust that was shattered between the IDF and the Palestinians. Still, he is optimistic. He has no doubts that he made the right decision in accepting his current position: "This is terrific. I will have devoted at least three years of my life to this and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

"This is the potential," continues Dayton, recalling the emotional graduation ceremonies at the training camp in Jordan. "It works, if the politics works, the rest of this is going to work. I'm gonna build you [Israelis] stuff that your government is going to look at and say: Let's take a little bit of risk and give them a chance and see what they can do. And we're very close to that point."

Related articles:

Mofaz: As PM, I'll personally lead talks with Palestinians

The road to Palestine leads through Damascus

Experiment: People's Peace Plan Number 1

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