By Stan Goodenough
Aug 21, 2007
This fall, the United States State Department will begin training terrorists belonging to the Palestine Liberation Organization to help secure their chief, Mahmoud Abbas, against being overthrown by Hamas.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arranged for State's Bureau of Diplomatic Security to conduct the program which will continue through the beginning of 2008.
Reuters quoted the State Department as saying that the purpose of the program is to help the PA "deliver security for the Palestinian people [sic] and fight terrorism [sic], build confidence between the parties, and ultimately help to meet the security needs of Palestinians and Israelis alike."
Palestinian Arabs have been trained by US security specialists before, only to turn their newly-enhanced skills and often American- or Israeli-supplied weaponry against Jews.
For the Bush administration increasingly desperate to secure a permanent status agreement between Israel and the "Palestinians" that will culminate in the creation of "Palestine" on Israel's biblical lands, the "risk for peace" is well worth taking.
Especially if the lives at risk are Israeli and not American.