When Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced his plan to reorganize the State Department, he mentioned the division was tormented by ineffective and inefficient diplomacy and hovering prices, and that he meant to focus on applications that don’t serve core American nationwide pursuits.
According to reports, one of many applications that Rubio is contemplating shuttering is the Workplace of the Safety Coordinator, which oversees safety coordination between the Israel Protection Forces and the Palestinian Authority Safety Forces.
Though there are undoubtedly State Division applications that match Rubio’s description, the Workplace of the Safety Coordinator will not be certainly one of them. With Rubio testifying this week earlier than funds hearings within the Home and the Senate, you will need to level out that the workplace is among the handiest, environment friendly and important applications that exists inside the U.S. authorities.
The Workplace of the Safety Coordinator is the most important success story of U.S. involvement within the Israeli-Palestinian battle of the previous twenty years. Its position is extra necessary now than ever.
Israel is mired in Gaza with a major new ground offensive and likewise contending with its overstretched army ranks. It’s heading off ballistic missile assaults from the Houthis, such because the one which exploded close to Ben Gurion Airport, and is cautious of recent threats that will emerge in Syria as the brand new authorities struggles to consolidate its management. Most pressingly, Israel expects this 12 months to be decisive in figuring out how Iran’s nuclear program is tackled.
There has by no means been a worse time to threat an eruption within the West Financial institution, as we’d do by shuttering the Workplace of the Safety Coordinator.
If any program needs to be taken off the administration’s chopping block, the Workplace of the Safety Coordinator needs to be first in line.
The workplace was created in 2005 within the wake of the second intifada as a approach of reworking the Palestinian Authority Safety Forces from a disparate group of militias that had spent the primary half of the last decade capturing at Israeli troopers into knowledgeable counterterrorism drive and gendarmerie that might coordinate with Israel on safety.
Led by a succession of three-star generals and admirals, the Workplace of the Safety Coordinator was extra profitable than anybody might have foreseen, coaching the Palestinian safety forces in skilled ways and procedures and facilitating practically twenty years of each day safety coordination between the IDF and the Palestinian Authority Safety Forces.
This coordination on counterterrorism and intelligence sharing is among the handiest components in containing Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad within the West Financial institution and stopping terrorism towards Israelis.
Safety coordination between the 2 sides has been proof against the deterioration of political relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and has survived pressures arising from IDF army operations in Gaza, flare-ups within the West Financial institution and the cataclysm of the Oct. 7 assaults. With out the continuing Workplace of the Safety Coordinator position in preserving issues on monitor, none of this might have been assured.
The Palestinian Authority Safety Forces additionally play an necessary position in combating Iran’s foothold within the West Financial institution by interdicting weapons from Iranian-backed teams and breaking apart Iranian financing rings. Specialised tactical recommendation and police coaching from the Workplace of the Safety Coordinator spurs Palestinian Authority Safety Forces counterterrorism campaigns, together with an operation launched in December towards Hamas and different terrorist teams within the Jenin refugee camp that continued regardless of six Palestinian Authority Safety Forces fatalities.
Maybe the Palestinian Authority Safety Power’s most speedy operate in defending Israeli lives is safely returning lots of of Israelis annually who unintentionally wander into Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Financial institution. This apply is so routine and brought without any consideration that it’s nearly by no means reported on.
Whereas the Palestinian Authority has its personal clear pursuits in performing all of those features, with out them, Israel’s safety burden could be a lot greater. There is no such thing as a assure that any of them will proceed if the Workplace of the Safety Coordinator is eradicated.
The West Financial institution will not be the one place the place the Workplace of the Safety Coordinator performs a central position. One of many thorniest obstacles in transitioning to a post-Hamas future in Gaza is determining who will present safety within the Strip so as to keep away from a everlasting IDF occupation.
The Workplace of the Safety Coordinator has been growing plans to coach a Palestinian safety drive that might carry out the identical features because the Palestinian Authority Safety Forces within the West Financial institution. It has the expertise and confirmed monitor document of efficiently coaching and equipping such a drive whereas coordinating with Israel and taking its safety considerations into consideration.
If the Trump administration, beneath Steve Witkoff’s path, can efficiently dealer an enduring hostage and cease-fire deal, collapsing the Workplace of the Safety Coordinator’s work on Gaza will undermine the sturdiness of any safety preparations that sideline Hamas by making a Palestinian different.
Except for being a crucial software of U.S. diplomacy within the area, the Workplace of the Safety Coordinator can be a mannequin for sustainable multilateral American engagement. The U.S. leads the mission, and 11 different NATO nations take part, offering their very own personnel, funding and experience.
It’s an instance of profitable burden sharing, one which prices the U.S. lower than $40 million yearly and that acts as a drive multiplier by drawing in different companions. It’s exactly the kind of imaginative and prescient that President Trump has articulated for the U.S. position on this planet and in relation to American allies.
Michael Koplow is Israel Coverage Discussion board’s chief coverage officer