General Payton: You Can Trust The Palestinians

In This Time, It Will Be Different, David Horowitz of The Jerusalem Post interviews General Keith Dayton who is helpfully training the seven-battalion Palestinian National Security Force:

The general, with typical care, has prepared for our interview by typing out, in considerable detail, what he wants to say. The theme can perhaps best be summed as: This time, it's different. This time, the Palestinian forces will prove genuinely capable - of taking on Hamas and other extremists... and of refraining from taking on their Israeli counterparts.

Obviously, Dayton is highly invested in these young Palestinian security personnel. Still, it is striking to register the emphatic belief he places in their ability to bolster security for their people and in so doing, to enhance security for ours.

He acknowledges wide expanses of Israeli skepticism, and then marches decisively across them. These are Palestinian fighters Israel can trust, Dayton insists. And you can bet that this highly credible three-star general is delivering the same upbeat message to his superiors in Washington.

The central question from David Horowitz:

Can you give me an unequivocal statement?: I find it inconceivable that these people would under any circumstances use their weapons against Israel. Can you comfortably say that?

And General Dayton's answer:

What I can say is that so far, in their operations since May, there has not been a single incident of Palestinian security force engagement with Israelis. Either Israeli civilians or IDF, even in Hebron, a very complex environment with settlers. Ok? I think that speaks for itself.

Dr. Aaron Lerner of IMRA notes:

US army Gen. Keith Dayton knows that he really doesn't have a decent answer to give to Israeli concerns that the army he is training will end up using their skills against the Jewish State if Israel  doesn't give the Palestinians what they want at the negotiating table. Dayton is stuck on this because even model PA "moderate" Abbas says that the killing Israelis is most definitively an option ("resistance") if he doesn't get what he wants from Israel.

And where does the moderate Abbas--Israel's peace partner--say that killing Israelis is an option?

That is what Abbas said this past February:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Thursday that while he opposes taking up armed struggle against Israel at the present time, he would not rule out the option for the future.

"I do not support a return to armed struggle at this point in time. But, at a later date, this could be an option for the Palestinian people," Abbas said on Thursday during an interview with the Jordanian newspaper Al-Duster. [emphasis added]

Joel Mowbray quoted Abbas this past March:

At least Mr. Abbas stated an opposition to terrorism, noting, Now we are against armed conflict. His reasoning, though, is what troubles Congress: because we are unable. Possibly hinting at a shift in strategies, he immediately added, In the future stages, things may be different.

Funny, that's the same thing General Dayton is claiming as well.

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