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As the Second Intifada raged from 2000 to 2005, general chaos prevailed in the West Bank, Israeli soldiers fought Palestinian militants and a steady stream of suicide bombers claimed the lives of more than 600 Israelis.

The new National Security Force troops are part of a Palestinian security apparatus that their own commanders, Western advisors and even the Israeli military say has helped transform the territory into a relatively orderly, bustling land.

And the Canadian-backed program has actually brought together the two sides of the conflict — at the military level at least — in ways seen nowhere else, said P.J. Dermer, a retired U.S. Marine colonel who worked for the “United States Security Co-ordinator (USSC)” project in its early years and now is writing a history of it.

The mission is led by Americans but Canadian soldiers have been invaluable from the beginning, sometimes even outnumbering U.S. counterparts, says Col. Dermer.

Hands down, it simply would not have happened without the Canadians

“Hands down, it simply would not have happened without the Canadians,” he said. “You really cannot commend them enough.”

Canada supplied much of the funding for the USSC in its first couple of years and, unlike the Americans, has allowed its soldiers to travel freely in the West Bank, Col. Dermer noted.

It has also played a large role in a parallel, European-headed project to help develop a civil police force. The Canadian government is even building a firing range for the Palestinians to “further confidence in their shooting skills.”