The Palestinian territories, comprising the West Bank and Gaza, cover 2,402 square miles and have a combined population of over 4 million people. (See fig. 1.) Both the PA and Israel administer areas within the West Bank. The U.S. government, along with other countries, has provided intermittent security assistance to the Palestinians since 1993. In 1993, the Oslo Accord called for limited Palestinian self-rule and security responsibilities in the West Bank and Gaza. The subsequent 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip divided the West Bank into three zones and allotted civil and security responsibilities, to varying degrees, to the Israeli government and the PA. The Government of Israel allowed the PA to establish some security forces and coordinated with the PA on the establishment of limited self-rule in the West Bank and Gaza. The United States provided some non-lethal equipment and a small amount of funding for salaries to help the newly created PA security forces improve their professionalism and combat terrorism. Other countries provided the PA with security assistance focused on training and equipping the security forces. The outbreak of the second intifada (insurrection), which State reports resulted in the death of more than 3,000 Palestinians and about 1,000 Israelis between 2000 and 2004, disrupted security assistance efforts. In response to the intifada, the Israeli security forces reoccupied much of the West Bank previously ceded to PA control, set up hundreds of checkpoints and roadblocks throughout the territory, erected a wall separating Israel and some Palestinian territory from the rest of the West Bank, and destroyed much of the Palestinian security infrastructure. As a result, Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation ceased and other governments curtailed or halted their security assistance to the PA. Amid the violence, efforts to negotiate a Middle East peace agreement began in 2000 at Camp David and continued until 2003. Security assistance efforts did not resume until after the PA, Israel, United States, United Nations, European Union, and Russia agreed in 2003 to implement the Roadmap for Peace, a U.S.-proposed performance-based strategy, which calls for an independent Palestinian state coexisting peacefully with the State of Israel and, among other things, provides a plan for establishing the security preconditions necessary to create an independent Palestinian state. The Roadmap, among other things, obligates the PA and Israel to undertake specific actions to improve security as part of the ongoing Middle East peace process. In particular, the Roadmap obligates the PA to perform the following actions: Issue an unequivocal statement reiterating Israel’s right to exist in peace and security and calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere. All official Palestinian institutions end incitement against Israel. Have its rebuilt and refocused security apparatus begin sustained, targeted, and effective operations aimed at confronting all those engaged in terror and dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure. This includes commencing confiscation of illegal weapons and consolidation of security authority, free of association with terror and corruption. Consolidate all Palestinian security organizations into three services reporting to an empowered Interior Minister. In return, the Roadmap obligates the Israelis to perform the following actions: Issue an unequivocal statement affirming its commitment to the two-state vision of an independent, viable, sovereign Palestinian state living in peace and security alongside Israel, as expressed by President Bush, and calling for an immediate end to violence against Palestinians everywhere. All official Israeli institutions are also to end incitement against Palestinians. Take no actions undermining trust, including deportations, attacks on civilians; confiscation and/or demolition of Palestinian homes and property, as a punitive measure or to facilitate Israeli construction; destruction of Palestinian institutions and infrastructure; and other measures specified in the Tenet work plan; and Progressively withdraw the Israeli Defense Forces from areas occupied since September 28, 2000, and the two sides restore the status quo that existed prior to September 28, 2000, as comprehensive security performance moves forward. Palestinian security forces to progressively redeploy to areas vacated by the Israeli Defense Forces. To help the PA and Israel meet their Roadmap obligations and pave the way for a two-state solution, the Secretary of State created the office of the USSC in 2005. The USSC, which operated with no project funding until mid-2007, initially focused on providing advice and guidance to the PASF on its reform efforts while also coordinating the programs of several other security donors. In addition, USSC officials coordinated and consulted with Israeli and Palestinian authorities in connection with the PA’s assumption of responsibility for security in Gaza following Israel’s August 2005 withdrawal. In January 2006, the Palestinian people elected a Hamas majority to the Palestinian Legislative Council. Following the results of the January 2006 election and the subsequent formation of a Fatah-Hamas unity government in 2007, the Quartet on the Middle East announced it would continue to provide support and assistance to the Hamas-led government only if the government would agree to nonviolence, recognize the State of Israel, and respect previous Israeli-Palestinian peace agreements. Hamas never accepted these conditions. U.S. direct assistance to the Palestinians was reduced and restructured, with the focus shifting to providing humanitarian and project assistance indirectly through international and non- governmental organizations. During this time, USSC focused on coordinating international assistance aimed at improving Gaza’s economy and helped coordinate the efforts of Israel, Egypt, and the PA to regulate and control the key Gaza border crossings. USSC also coordinated with Britain and Canada to provide training assistance to the PA’s Presidential Guard, a security organization under the control of the PA president with responsibility for protecting PA officials and facilities and manning the border crossings. In June 2007, Hamas forcibly took control of the Gaza Strip. This led the PA President to issue an emergency decree suspending the operation of the PA government and appointing a new government, without Hamas participation, to administer the affairs of the West Bank during the state of emergency, under a politically independent Prime Minister. As a result, the United States decided to re-engage with the PA directly and increased the amount of U.S. assistance aimed at improving the economic and security climate in the West Bank and increasing the capacity of the PA. As described by USSC and State officials, the USSC’s current mission is to (1) facilitate PA-Israeli cooperation and allay Israeli fears about the nature and capabilities of the PASF; (2) lead and coordinate international assistance for the PASF provided by the United States and other international donors to eliminate duplication of effort; and (3) help the PA rightsize, reform, and professionalize its security sector by advising the PA and by training and equipping the PASF to meet the Palestinians’ obligations outlined in the Roadmap. The head of the USSC, a lieutenant general in the U.S. Army, also serves as the deputy for security issues to the U.S. Special Envoy for Middle East Peace. The office of the USSC has a core staff of approximately 45 personnel as of March 2010. Headquartered in Jerusalem, the USSC includes up to 16 U.S. military personnel and several U.S. civilians. About 17 military staff provided to USSC by Canada operate in the West Bank, and two or more British military personnel from Britain support the USSC at the PA Ministry of Interior in Ramallah. USSC also maintains staff at the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv as liaisons to the government of Israel. State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL) maintains staff in Jerusalem to implement INL program funds, most of which underwrite USSC activities. About 28 INL-directed Dyncorps International contractors assist with USSC training programs in the West Bank and Jordan. Other INL staff and contractors manage equipment warehouse operations in Jerusalem and oversee construction projects in the West Bank under this program. Under the current president and prime minister, the PA formalized plans to reorganize and rebuild ministries and security forces in the West Bank with donor assistance between 2008 and 2010. The PA has consolidated a 23,000-strong security force under Presidential and Interior Ministry control, as called for in the Roadmap Agreement. As shown in figure 2, the PASF is comprised of uniformed services, civilian organizations, and intelligence offices. The U.S. government, through USSC and INL has allocated over $160 million in funding for the training of certain units of the PASF’s uniformed services, primarily the NSF, since 2007. USSC has also helped provide State-funded vehicles and nonlethal individual and unit equipment to both the NSF and Presidential Guard, totaling about $89 million. In addition, State has allocated approximately $99 million toward the renovation or construction of numerous PASF installations. Finally, USSC and INL have undertaken activities to increase the PA’s capacity, including building the Ministry of Interior’s capacity to plan and oversee the PASF and coordinate international donor assistance. State allocated $22 million in funding for these programs since 2007. (See table 1.) State also has requested a total of $150 million in additional INCLE funding for security assistance to the PA for fiscal year 2011, including $56 million for training activities, $33 million for equipping, $53 million for infrastructure activities, and $3 million for strategic capacity building activities. Since 2007, State, primarily through USSC, has allocated more than $160 million to support training of PASF units in Jordan and the West Bank. USSC has focused its training programs mainly on the NSF, and to a lesser extent, the Presidential Guard. The main component of the USSC training-related activities is battalion- level basic law enforcement and security training conducted at the Jordanian International Police Training Center outside Amman, Jordan. As of January 2010, the Jordanian International Police Training Center had trained four NSF battalions and one Presidential Guard battalion totaling about 2,500 personnel.