US security coordinator Keith Dayton secretly leaves the West Bank

By Muhammad Jamal – Occupied Jerusalem

Palestinian and Israeli security sources revealed on Saturday (09.10.2010) that the US security coordinator between Israel and Palestine, General Keith Dayton, has left the Occupied Palestinian Territories. The sources assert that Dayton returned to the US last Thursday after a stay in the territories of five years during which he worked toward the ‘rehabilitation and development’ of the Palestinian security apparatus in the West Bank.

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The Israeli daily, Haaretz, which monitored Dayton’s efforts labelling them “great and fruitful”, said he won great confidence because of his success in the development of Palestinian security in the West Bank through US funding and supervision; he supervised the special training of 3,100 Palestinian soldiers.

The newspaper also stated “The capability of the security forces in the West Bank developed tangibly thanks to Dayton and his men so much so that Hamas named these forces ‘Dayton’s forces’. It clarified that General Michael Muller would be replacing Dayton, indicating that he is a general in the US air force where he was a B52 pilot and responsible for strategic planning within the leadership of the US army centre, Centcom.