Palestinians to get basic flak jackets, ending row

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - After months of delay, the United States has got a green light from Israel to supply flak jackets to Palestinian security forces, whose performance in the West Bank may hold the key to a future Israeli withdrawal.

But reflecting wider problems of trust between Israel and Palestinians, permission has come on condition President Mahmoud Abbas's men get standard-issue police flak jackets instead of the heavier-duty body armor that the Palestinians and some American advisers had sought, officials close to the deal said.

Israel's fear is that top-end body armor could fall into militant hands and offer fighters greater protection from Israeli fire. Standard flak jackets have less stopping power.

"They're getting the same flak jackets that police get in the United States," a Western official involved in the program said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "There is no degradation in their protection. The protection they are receiving from these vests is adequate to the task."

Another official working on the project said there was Palestinian concern about equipment and Israeli meddling.

Palestinian officials referred questions on the matter to the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, which declined to comment.

The year-and-a-half-long tug-of-war over flak jackets underscores skepticism in Israel's defence establishment about the multimillion-dollar U.S. training program for Abbas's men.

"You have to understand, we've been burned before," said Danny Ayalon, Israel's former ambassador to the United States.

At the height of the Palestinian uprising that started in 2000, Israel targeted some security men loyal to then-leader Yasser Arafat, arguing they were complicit in attacks.

Paid for by U.S. taxpayers, the flak jackets will be distributed to Abbas's forces once they clear Israeli port security, a process that could take weeks, officials said.

Western sources said Israel objected to heavy-duty body armor on the grounds its own forces in the occupied West Bank don't always have similar protection.

SECURITY PROGRAMME

Because of funding delays in the United States, the training program for Abbas's forces did not really get under way until well after Hamas's takeover of the Gaza Strip in June 2007.

Getting even non-lethal equipment approved by Israel has been difficult and time-consuming. Washington does not supply so-called "lethal aid" to Abbas's men.

Israel seized British-supplied body armor from Abbas's forces on the eve of the first Palestinian law-and-order campaign, launched in the West Bank city of Nablus in November.

Six months later, Abbas's forces deployed in the northern city of Jenin, again without flak jackets.

But with Palestinian statehood talks in limbo, the security program may be all that emerges from U.S. President George W. Bush's end-of-term push for peace. Israel has conditioned statehood on Abbas's forces reining in militants.

Israeli objections to the body armor surfaced in January 2007 when Keith Dayton, the U.S. general who coordinates security between Israel and the Palestinians, proposed including protective gear in the security assistance package.

A former Israeli defence official who took part in the negotiations said the army did not want Abbas's men to receive protective gear that could defend against a bullet fired from an M-16, the U.S.-made rifle carried by many Israeli soldiers.

But the defence official said Israel was more "relaxed" about allowing them to have flak jackets that could defend against bullets fired from Kalashnikovs, the Soviet-designed rifles used by Palestinian security forces and most militants.

Ayalon pointed to Israeli fears Hamas could seize the West Bank and send militants in body armor to attack civilians. "This kind of equipment can be very offensive," he said.

Yoni Fighel, a senior researcher at Israel's International Institute for Counter-Terrorism, said he personally found it hard to understand why flak jackets became such a big problem.

"But this mindset of suspicion is understandable in light of events that happened in the past," said the former army colonel who served as governor of Ramallah and Jenin in the early 1990s. Then, peace talks fostered Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation, but the goodwill quickly broke down after 2000.

"You build up trust and personal connections and then, one day, you find yourself being shot at," Fighel said. "These wounds need to be healed but it's a matter of time."

(Editing by Mark Trevelyan)