Three-star middleman By Aluf Benn Haaretz 8 August 2008 www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1009578.html

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."