Obama's National Security Adviser Makes Some Israelis Nervous

[Purveyor]

By Jonathan Broder, CQ Staff

President-elect Barack Obama ’s choice of retired Marine Corps Gen. James L. Jones Jr. to be his national security adviser has made some Israeli officials nervous.

Jones was appointed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a year ago as a special envoy for Middle East security, and since then has often clashed with Israeli officials as he has tried to advance a U.S. plan to train Palestinian forces to take control of security in the West Bank as part of the “road map” peace plan.

He also prepared a report that was never published but that Israeli newspapers said was “scathing” in its criticism of Israeli policies in the Palestinian territories. Specifically, the papers reported, Jones complained about Israel’s preventing the movement of Palestinian Authority forces and blocking plans for weapons shipments and technology to the Palestinians. Officials in Jerusalem say they acted out of concern that Palestinian security forces would turn their guns on Israelis.

Israeli military officials, including Defense Minister Ehud Barak, also have been wary of Jones’ proposal to replace Israeli troops in the territory with a NATO force and eventually turn over security in the West Bank to U.S.-trained Palestinian units.

Jones and Army Lt. Gen. Keith W. Dayton, who has led the on-the-ground effort to train Palestinian security forces, have managed to ease some of Israel’s concerns. In May, they won permission to deploy a battalion of U.S.-trained Palestinian police in the northern West Bank city of Jenin, a hotbed of anti-Israeli activity. By September, the Palestinian police had imposed law and order on the city. In October, another battalion of U.S.-trained Palestinian security forces took up positions in Hebron, where tensions between Palestinians and Jewish settlers have sparked violence.

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