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by Andrew Bernard
Members of the Palestinian Authority security forces disperse a Hamas demonstration in the West Bank city of Hebron, Dec. 14, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Mussa Qawasma.
With a shutdown of the US government all but certain after the failure of a short-term funding measure in the House of Representatives on Friday, a bipartisan group of senators has introduced legislation to fully fund US security cooperation with Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
US Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-GA), Todd Young (R-IN), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and James Lankford (R-OK) on Thursday introduced the Middle East Security Coordination Act, which would fund the United States Security Coordinator (USSC) for Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) for five additional years and ensure that the USSC remains a three-star general rank.
“The US Security Coordinator in Jerusalem plays a crucial role in protecting American interests and deescalating conflict in Israel and Palestinian territories,” Ossoff said. “With tensions rising in this area, these efforts are essential.”
The Biden administration in the summer of 2022 had considered downgrading the USSC to the rank of colonel, but reversed course in part after receiving pushback from a bipartisan group of 34 US senators.
The USSC was established in 2005 and was intended to professionalize the PA’s security forces in the wake of the Second Intifada, in which more than a thousand Israelis and several thousand Palestinians were killed. Today, the USSC’s website describes its vision as creating an “effective and sustainable Palestinian Authority Security Force capable of providing security to all Palestinian people.” The US now carries out the office’s work as part of a nine-member NATO coalition.
Thursday’s bill would appropriate $75 million a year for five years for the USSC. While the US no longer provides economic aid to the Palestinian Authority as a result of the Taylor Force Act, nonlethal security aid is exempt from those restrictions.
The ability of the Palestinian Authority to maintain control in its area of responsibility in the West Bank was called into question this summer when Israel mounted one of the largest counter-terrorism raids in years in the West Bank city of Jenin. Israeli officials said that the PA had effectively lost control of the city to militant groups, including the Iran-backed, Gaza-based terrorist group Palestinian Islamic Jihad.
