By 2008, the Office of the Security Coordinator, with a staff of 145, defined as a key goal of its efforts the development of a PA security force with paramilitary capabilities that could protect Abbas' regime from Hamas. The American investment in this venture encompassed major assistance in reforming the forces and rebuilding of infrastructure, providing equipment and major involvement in training.
In 2011, the Security Office enlarged its focus to include the development of PA indigenous readiness, training and logistics programs as well as the capability to maintain and sustain operational readiness and support infrastructure.
By that year, US-financed training programs had graduated 4,761 Palestinian cadets from the US-supported Jordanian International Police Training Center in Amman. The Coordinator's Office also conducted training in the West Bank attended by 3,500 security commanders and troops. Washington helped build joint operations centers for planning, command and control, as well as the National Training Center in Jericho.
However, as we consider the situation now, we see that not only has that goal of providing PA Security Forces with the capacity to repel Hamas not been achieved; over the past year, the influence of Hamas within the PA security forces has grown significantly. This, in spite of all the funding, training and weaponry that has been supplied.
All other factors aside, there is an underlying cause that is routinely overlooked: the nature of traditional Arab (which includes Palestinian Arab) culture. Whatever the PR promoting a Palestinian state would have us believe, the reality is that for many Palestinian Arabs, loyalty does not rest with some abstract notion of a state that must be defended. Primarily, loyalty is to the extended family: the clan.
Training does not significantly alter this perception.
The problem lies with the fact that within the same extended clan there may be those serving in the PA Security Forces and those who are members of Hamas. Security Forces officers are loathe to do battle with their brothers in Hamas.
In a 2011 report by the Center for Near East Policy Research on "The Dangers of US aid to PA Security Forces," this issue was addressed.
Dr. Mordecai Kedar, research associate at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies at Bar-Ilan University, said that while the troops could be loyal to the PA for the present, "When [not if] there will be domestic problems in the PA/Palestinian state these people will be loyal primarily to their clan [Arabic: hamula] rather than to the state, since they will never shoot their brothers or cousins...."
A prominent Palestinian-Israeli journalist explained that the clan system is not as strong as it once was, however: "This is Arab society.
You can't erase a centuries-old tradition, can't tamper with culture. It will never work. You can't impose a solution on anyone."
