They're Mahmoud Abbas' enforcers — well-trained, disciplined and loyal only to the Palestinian president.
The 3,500-strong Presidential Guard protects Abbas, watches the volatile Gaza-Egypt border and has taken on Hamas militiamen in street clashes. With tensions between the moderate Abbas and the Islamic militant Hamas on the rise, the U.S. is proposing spending millions of dollars to increase the black-clad elite force to 6,000 and to widen its mandate.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who met with Abbas in the West Bank on Wednesday, supports the expansion of the force, a U.S. State Department official said.
The Presidential Guard, which started out as a small band of bodyguards under the late Yasser Arafat, is emerging as the only of the six Palestinian security services considered trustworthy by the U.S., according to officials in the international donor community. The other branches either report to the Hamas government or are caught in a power struggle between Hamas and Abbas.
The politically weak Abbas is increasingly relying on his security force, especially on sensitive assignments.
After Hamas took power in March, the guardsmen were deployed on the Gaza-Egypt border, alongside EU monitors, to try to meet international and Israeli demands that the Palestinians prevent the smuggling of cash and fugitives. Members of the Presidential Guard are frequently rotated to different assignments to reduce the possibility of bribe-taking.
"We have clear and obvious instructions from the president to look after crossings and protect them," said Jamal Abu Fahem, 42, a colonel in the guard. "We don't want to give anyone an excuse to close them."
On a recent morning, Abu Fahem paced at the border crossing, barking orders at his men to prevent a group of impatient passengers from pushing their way into the gated compound.
European monitors praised their Palestinian colleagues as professional and disciplined. "They accept (orders) and carry them out," said Lars Bertil Johansson, a European police team leader at the terminal.
Under a $20 million (€15.7 million) proposal by the U.S. security coordinator in the region, Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, guardsmen would be exclusively deployed at the main cargo crossing between Israel and Gaza, with international supervision, to help ensure it stays open. Currently, other security branches are also present at the Karni cargo crossing.
Funding has not yet been worked out, and most of the money would have to come from donor countries other than the U.S., because of congressional restrictions on U.S. aid to the Palestinians, U.S. officials said.
Israel has shut down Karni for extended periods, saying Palestinian security there remains lax despite repeated attacks on the crossing by Palestinian militants. Getting Karni reopened is a U.S. priority, to ease the economic distress in Gaza.
Israeli Defense Minister Amir Peretz said Thursday that he supports the U.S. plan for Karni, suggesting that Israel is agreeable to a Presidential Guard presence there. In the summer, Israel permitted a shipment of weapons and ammunitions to the guard.
New training facilities for the Presidential Guard would be set up in the West Bank town of Jericho and in Gaza, at a cost of $2 million (€1.6 million) each, according to the Dayton proposal.
New recruits, usually between the ages of 18 and 22, are carefully selected, undergoing background checks and medical tests. They undergo three months of basic training, before a final decision is made on whether to accept them. By contrast, members of the other security services are often accepted on a good word from a relative, given a rifle and a uniform and sent into the streets.
Those headed for the officers' track in the Presidential Guard must show good high school grades, a talent for languages and a strong build. Future officers are sent abroad for training, including to the U.S. and Arab countries.
Abu Fahem, the colonel deployed at the Gaza border, said he has attended more than 20 training sessions in his 19 years on the force, including in Russia, Turkey, the United States and Egypt.
Since Hamas took power, the size of the guard in Gaza doubled to 1,800, said Wael Zahab, a spokesman for the force. About 400 new recruits graduated in August, and another group of the same size will start training in coming weeks.
Still, the Presidential Guard makes up only a tiny portion of the 85,000-strong security forces. Guardsmen have largely gone unpaid, just like their colleagues in the other branches, because an international aid freeze has left the Hamas government broke.
However, members of the guard enjoy better working conditions than their counterparts in the other services. They have newer cars and better communications equipment, are fed regularly and get daily spending money from Abbas' office.
Many members of the other security forces are loyal to Abbas' Fatah movement, but not to him personally. With divisions in Fatah growing since its defeat in January parliament elections, Abbas could not necessarily count on the support of all Fatah-allied members of the security forces.
Hamas accuses the U.S. of trying to divide the Palestinians by boosting Abbas.
Ahmed Youssef, an adviser to Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, said the Palestinians will interpret the U.S. support for Abbas, including for his personal security force, as meddling. "This will for sure undermine his (Abbas') position," Youssef said.
Youssef said enlarging the guard could also backfire if Hamas wins the next presidential election, in three years. A Hamas president would then control a large, well-equipped fighting force.
Tensions between the Hamas government and the independently elected Abbas have been rising in recent days, following the collapse of negotiations about bringing Fatah into the government. Abbas has accused Hamas of reneging on earlier agreements.
Last weekend, the Presidential Guard was drawn into widespread clashes between Hamas militiamen and Fatah-allied security forces in Gaza and the West Bank. Eleven Palestinians have been killed in the worst internal fighting since Hamas took power, including a member of the guard. A Fatah activist wounded Sunday died Thursday.
Tawfik, a 37-year-old lieutenant in the guard, said his men's loyalty to Abbas is absolute. "We are very different from all the other forces," said Tawfik, who would only give his first name because he is not allowed to speak to reporters .
" We take our orders from the president," he said.</blockquote>
-- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>