The report card on the PA security forces is in: they are completely dysfunctional. What a surprise. What, you mean Arafat's divide-and-conquer patronage schemes did not produce efficient government? I'm shocked. Now, please tell me if I should be glad that this small slice of reality has been officially noticed, or sorry that yet another excuse for "supporting" and "strengthening" the PA has been produced, which will merely worsen the current situation?
JERUSALEM, July 25 - The security forces of the Palestinian Authority are divided, weak, overstaffed, badly motivated and underarmed, and more attention must be paid to building up institutions rather than personalities, says the first independent survey of the complicated Palestinian security environment since the death of Yasir Arafat.
The survey, a copy of which was provided to The New York Times by the authors a day before publication, was prepared in close coordination with Lt. Gen. William E. Ward, the American-appointed coordinator of the effort to overhaul the chaotic Palestinian security apparatus, and the Palestinian Authority. It has been reviewed by senior American and Palestinian officials, including those in the office of the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas.
...The essential problem for the Palestinian Authority, the report says, is that its security forces were established on "an ad hoc basis without statutory support and in isolation of wider reforms," a lasting legacy of Mr. Arafat's policy of duplication and promoting rivalry within his organization.
nytimes.com |
