In fear of an uprising, the King of Jordan has his private airplane running 24 hours a day, seven days a week to whisk him away in case of a revolt.
If you’ve heard former MK Aryeh Eldad speak in the past few years (before recent Knesset elections, at least), you probably heard him say something like this: “The vast majority of Jordan is Palestinian.
In fear of an uprising, the King of Jordan has his private airplane running 24 hours a day, seven days a week to whisk him away in case of a revolt. He should declare that Jordan is the Palestinian national homeland or seek asylum in London.”
Such language (there was also a petition and a pamphlet) is only the most recent incarnation of a push for “Jordan is Palestine,” a slogan many on the Right still adhere to.
In a lengthy 1988 article on the topic for Commentary (rejecting “Jordan is Palestine”), Middle East scholar Daniel Pipes and international affairs expert Adam Garfinkle documented many proponents of the theory, even practical Israeli plans for potentially realizing it, and Pipes continues to update the article on his website with quotations of relevant personalities who maintain the opinion.
As Eldad has explained, the goal of making Jordan into Palestine is to lessen pressure on Israel to implement the “two-state solution.” Once Jordan becomes Palestine, the “the Palestinians [would] lose their orphan status as a people without a state” and “their international demands will become much weaker.”
The two-state solution would become meaningless as there would already be a Palestinian state, and there would therefore be much less of an argument for Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria, something Jordan-is-Palestine proponents rightly fear would lead to grave danger for Israel.
If only it were that simple.
WESTERN PRESSURE on Israel is not founded only upon the slogan, “two-states for two peoples.” Such pressure is based on geopolitical factors such as the millions of Arabs and Muslims who comprise multiple states, who control large swaths of territory and important resources, who are sizable minorities of European states and who oppose Israel’s existence without regard to western formulations.
It is based in an unspoken anti-Semitism, the feeling that these Israelis, these Jews are manipulative land-grabbers who take what’s not theirs, who act like they can do whatever they want, when in reality, if it weren’t for outside support they would never survive the Arab onslaught.
It’s based in Western guilt over imperialism and colonialism and a Jewish tendency to blame ourselves for the wrongdoing of others.
It finds rationalization and open expression in liberal terminology such as independence, human rights, national aspirations, democracy, occupation, apartheid and “two-states for two peoples.” But that’s only the gift wrapping.
So on the day Jordan is renamed “Palestine,” Israel’s detractors will not wake up enlightened to the falseness of the claims of apartheid and occupation. Western ambassadors will not turn to their Arab counterparts and say – “your claim is resolved, we won’t play along with your war against Israel any longer.”
On the day Jordan becomes Palestine, the pressure on Israel will increase. In place of a state ruled by a Hashemite monarchy allied with the US, which controversially entered into a treaty with Israel and which cooperates with Israel on security matters, there would instead be a state ruled by a majority that believes Israel’s existence is a nakba, a catastrophe, committed by the most vile people; that Israel is actually their homeland wrongfully stolen from them. And, they would have all the tools of statehood – diplomatic and military, as well as a very long shared border – at their disposal to right that wrong and create more instability.
Today, Jordan reportedly allows armed Israeli drones to use its airspace to operate in Syria, and Israeli drones are even monitoring the Syria-Jordan border on Jordan’s behalf. That 110 of the 120 members of Jordan’s lower legislative house recently signed a petition calling for the release of a Jordanian terrorist who murdered seven Israeli schoolgirls while they were visiting the “Island of Peace” in Jordan, however – not to mention the rise of Islamists in Egypt and soon in Syria – is a sign of what non- Hashemite rule would look like.
A Palestinian-ruled Jordan therefore represents a danger almost identical to, perhaps even greater than, a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria, and no hasbarah (public diplomacy) activist or ambassador complaining about how the two-state solution was already implemented is going to change that.
The “Jordan-is-Palestine” plan is thus a right-wing fantasy which mirrors the left-wing fantasy of the “two-state solution.” Both are based on the assumption that if the Palestinians had a state of their own, the conflict would cease, Israel would capture the moral high ground and the fundamental perception of the conflict would shift, that it would become a run-of-the mill territorial dispute between states, etc.
The right-wing version, however, is more hypocritical as its proponents recognize something their leftwing counterparts fail to: that the creation of a Palestinian state in the “West Bank” would not lead to an end of the conflict or improve Israel’s diplomatic position. Despite this recognition, the Jordan-is- Palestine proponents pursue in the east bank the very logic they rightfully reject with regard to the west bank.
There is, however, an important hasbarah function served by the Jordan-is-Palestine argument. It’s a reminder of a history that has been forgotten, ignored and repressed: the history of how the international community unanimously recognized “the historical connection of the Jewish people to Palestine” and “the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country,” and how Judea and Samaria is not alien territory to Jews, but part of their homeland which was illegally conquered and ethnically cleansed of its Jews by Jordan in 1948 and renamed the “West Bank” in 1950.
That history undermines the narrative that Israel’s creation was a post-Holocaust scheme in which the Jews, with guilt-ridden European help, stole land which was not their own, and all the policy implications that narrative carries, such as the alleged need to establish a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria.
It’s also a reminder of how that policy has already failed as once before territory the Jews sought (“every expert knows that for a prosperous Palestine, an adequate territory beyond the Jordan is indispensable,” Herbert Samuel once said, prior to becoming High Commissioner) and which was part of (actually, the majority of) the land promised to them, was relinquished and handed over to Arabs, yet Arab aspirations were not satiated and violent opposition to Zionism did not abate. It also asks the reader: if a Palestinian-Arab state already exists, why does justice demand that there be another one?
But hasbarah has its limits. And whatever the utility of Jordan-is-Palestine as a hasbarah point, it does not remove the danger that Jordan-is-Palestine as a peace plan would pose – dangers which all of the history prior and subsequent to Israel’s establishment point to.
The writer is a political activist and an attorney.
@ Sebastien Zorn:
You’re right, too.
Meanwhile, in the real world, they are giving away the store.
“We prayed and we prayed, and they crapped and they crapped.”
“What is the sound of one hand crapping?”
@ Sebastien Zorn:
@ Sebastien Zorn:
What do you mean, Sebastien? They can’t both be right!
@ Abolish_public_education:
You’re right.
@ ArnoldHarris:
You’re right.
@ ArnoldHarris:
You’re usually not so emotional.
I agree that Israel rightly needs to extend well into modern-day Iraq, but robbing (expelling, whatever) those who are already situated there would be a huge waste of energy and money.
Israel needs to spend the next 100 years or so consolidating its hold on what it already has.
No more land swaps, territorial concessions for (non-) peace, discussions of shared sovereignty, etc.
No more awarding “benefits” (tax giveaways) to legal residents.
Then, in the following century, when the Holy Land will be home to many more than 55,000,000 traditional-religious Zionists and the Arabs have succumbed to reality, Jews will begin to naturally spread eastward.
Another 100-150 years after that, they’ll be pushing peacefully into Babylonia.
Jordan should be the eastern part of the Jewish State of Israel. HaShem willing — or even unwilling, because when Jewish national push comes to shove, I really don’t give s damn about who or what sanctifies this vital future land re-acquisition.
Having studied the maps of ancient Israel, I am beset with grim rage at the cowardice and simpering that so strongly characterizes modern Jews of the class that pretends to lead the Jewish nation. Nor am I interested in peace for Israel, other than the peace which comes only to victors.
Our European settlers of what became the United States of America never hesitated in robbing the native tribes which had been settled all across North America for some 30 thousand years or more.
Arnold Harris, Outspeaker
Good article. Could have added that the Jordanian Parliament just voted to honor the Temple Mount killers. And that there have actually been protests against Israeli natural gas because they would rather suffer than recognize Israel on any level. This is an elected parliament that has had difficulty passing any serious legislation outlawing honor killings and marital abuse which some have openly defended. Many, many fanatics here, who do not value life as a primary value. It is very difficult for Westerners to wrap our brains around such mass craziness.
Difficult to know how to proceed. But it is good hasbara in that it points out the actual historical situation, as the article says.
I believe that there is a lot of merit to this article. 97% or more of Jordanians hate Jews and Israel. So we in reality may not get better than the current situation.
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ten-point-plan-of-the-plo-june-1974
@ Per:
That’s what worries me now. Are you familiar with the 1974 PLO Ten Point Program:
“Adopted at the 12th Session of the Palestine National Council
Cairo, 8 June 1974
The Palestine National Council,
On the basis of the Palestine National Charter and the Political Program drawn up at the eleventh session, held from 6-12 January 1973; and from its belief that it is impossible for a permanent and just peace to be established in the area unless our Palestinian people recover from all their national rights and, first and foremost, their rights to return and to self-determination on the whole of the soil of their homeland; and in the light of a study of the new political circumstances that have come into existence in the period between the Council’s last and present sessions, resolves the following:
1. To reaffirm the Palestine Liberation Organization’s previous attitude to Resolution 242, which obliterates the national right of our people and deals with the cause of our people as a problem of refugees. The Council therefore refuses to have anything to do with this resolution at any level, Arab or international, including the Geneva Conference.
2. The Palestine Liberation Organization will employ all means, and first and foremost armed struggle, to liberate Palestinian territory and to establish the independent combatant national authority for the people over every part of Palestinian territory that is liberated. This will require further changes being effected in the balance of power in favor of our people and their struggle.
3. The Liberation Organization will struggle against any proposal for a Palestinian entity the price of which is recognition, peace, secure frontiers, renunciation of national rights, and the deprival of our people of their right to return and their right to self-determination on the soil of their homeland.
4. Any step taken towards liberation is a step towards the realization of the Liberation Organization’s strategy of establishing the democratic Palestinian State specified in the resolutions of the previous Palestinian National Councils.
5. Struggle along with the Jordanian national forces to establish a Jordanian-Palestinian national front whose aim will be to set up in Jordan a democratic national authority in close contact with the Palestinian entity that is established through the struggle.
6. The Liberation Organization will struggle to establish unity in struggle between the two peoples and between all the forces of the Arab liberation movement that are in agreement on this program.
7. In the light of this program, the Liberation Organization will struggle to strengthen national unity and to raise it to the level where it will be able to perform its national duties and tasks.
8. Once it is established, the Palestinian national authority will strive to achieve a union of the confrontation countries, with the aim of completing the liberation of all Palestinian territory, and as a step along the road to comprehensive Arab unity.
9. The Liberation Organization will strive to strengthen its solidarity with the socialist countries, and with the forces of liberation and progress throughout the world, with the aim of frustrating all the schemes of Zionism, reaction and imperialism.
10. In light of this program, the leadership of the revolution will determine the tactics which will serve and make possible the realization of thee objectives.
The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization will make every effort to implement this program, and should a situation arise affecting the destiny and the future of the Palestinian people, the National Assembly will be convened in extraordinary session.
Sources:
Permanent Observer Mission of Palestine to the United Nations”
A great pity Israel didn’t help Arafat win Black September.
@ Edgar G.:
Be careful or you may be sued for hate speech. It’s “little person kingling” now.
Fantasy Island TV Show Opening Theme Season One 1978
https://youtu.be/1x_QbVDlLbI
Be careful or you may be sued for hate speech. It’s “little person kingling” now.
Fantasy Island TV Show Opening Theme Season One 1978
https://youtu.be/1x_QbVDlLbI
I can undrstand the position that making Jordan into Palestine would make things “worse\” in the short term, since there would be an openly aggressive country, full of those with Jew hatred. But we have that now, right now as well.
In case that Jordan DOES become Palestine, there will first be an abrogation of their “Peace Treaty”, and pehaps then a state of war between Israel and Palestine. I say, the sooner the better, because THEN, we could clean up the mess totally, crush the enemy who declared war against us, and force a peace, and active peace, because there would be put in place a more amenable govt.
This is assuming that Mudar Zahran, is not at the helm when this happens. If he is, and Jordan becomes Palestine under his aegis, we will be able to breathe a bit more freely, because he will be heavily supported by the US and other International entities.
The sooner the plane takes off with the midget kingling aboard, his Swiss bank accounts all in order, and pointed for a long happy care-free life abroad, the better for all, even if there is a temporary vacuum.