By Ted Belman.
David Singer, an Australian lawyer and founder of Jordan Is Palestine, is right in his article “Israeli Right does not seek overthrow of Jordan’s monarchy” (which appears the next post down.). He has been disagreeing with me both publicly and privately on my Jordan Option.
In his article he argues that the right does indeed have a solution to providing for the civil rights for Palestinian Arabs after annexation, except for overthrowing Jordan’s Hashemite monarchy.
The solution according to him is to offer residency or citizenship to all 50,000 to 70,000 Arabs in Area C should Israel extend sovereignty. He says nothing about how Israel should contend with the PA and its backers or how to accommodate the fact that Israel would not be sovereign over A or B and all the problems it would entail.
But he does envisage that the king may have something to say.
“However Jordan needs to negotiate with Israel on Judea and Samaria’s future after 40 years of refusing to take up the JIP solution to resolve a conflict now in its 100th year – if it wishes to regain any part of Judea and Samaria that was unified with Transjordan in 1950 and then renamed Jordan – with its Arab residents enjoying Jordanian citizenship until 1988.”
Jordan gave up its rights to negotiate for the Palestinians and to any part of the land west of the river in 1988. What’s there to negotiate? Why does he even mention this?
I think that extending sovereignty over Area C and giving residency or Israeli citizenship who live there is OK so far as it goes. But. Singer doesn’t deal with the problematic parts of his solution such as who would be sovereign over A and B and how would you manage the traffic between such areas.. Nor does he make the case for keeping the King in power. Nor does he comment on the role of the PA.
The reason why the Jordan Option involves replacing the king as ruler with Mudar Zahran as President, is because it provides Israel with many potential benefits that Singer’s solution doesn’t begin to dream of.
- It allows for the extention of sovereignty over Areas A and B by Israel in addition to C and negates the need to offer Israeli citizenship to any Arab living in A, B or C.
- It offers a plan to reduce the number of Arabs living in Gaza, A, B or C by inducing them to emigrate to Jordan.
- Ultimately Oslo and UNRWA will be dispensed with and Jordan under Zahran will administer the Arabs living there.
- It will bring peace to the Middle East, finally, whereas Singer’s plan, will perpetuate the 100 year war. It will acerbate it, not end it.
I far prefer the Jordan Option to Singer’s “solution”.
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
Mudar has the support of the people he needs. If you were able to follow social media in Jordan you would see that Mudar is the only person mentioned for the role of leading the opposition.
If you could follow his Oxford video and his EU video you would see that they have been dubbed in Hebrew and Arabic and are drawing a huge number of viewers in Israel and Jordan.
Finally, he has all the money he needs and the financial support for his plans that money is not a problem.
What gives me the confidence in the Jordan Option is that it is the only plan that will work.
As I have pointe out so many times, there doesn’t seem to be much objective evidence that Mudar has the necessary political support either in Jordan or from foreign governments that he would need to become President of Jordan, at least for the foreesable future. His support for a Jordanian-Palestinian-Israeli alliance, although I think it’s a wonderful idea, limits his ability to win a following. So does his lack of funds, because he has apparently failed to win the support of foreign governments or wealthy individuals who are “big givers.”
I don’t blame Mudar for telling his friends otherwise. In order to have any prospect at all of gaining power, a politician must project absolute confidence that he will succeed. Otherwise his prospects for achieving his goal dwindles from slim to zero. In democratic countries, politicians always say they expect to win even when their support base is small. They must do this to have any chance to pick up support, recruit followers and voters, and raise money. Why should it be any different for an exiled politician who is “running” to depose a dictator? I wish Mudar well, and applaud him for exuding confidence and determination. But we should be realistic. It doesn’t seem likely that he will accomplish his goals, at least not in the near future, because his people have been so brainwashed to hate Israel and Jews, and Mudar is courageous enough to say publicly that he respects and likes Israel and Jewish people. I hope that in the long run the Jordanian and Palestinian people’s attitudes toward Israel and Jews improves. We mustn’t give up hope.
@ Edgar G.:
Sorry for the garbled last small paragraph about Singer.. I have PC keys with temperament , and my “edit time” ran out. But I believe that it is easy enough to get the gist of it……Maybe I just invented a new way to read English, a “Nuevo Esperanto”…
I believe that after a good workout, the trainer used to rub on, an embrocation called “Singer’s Solution”…..maybe…? What called it to mind was the strong smell, not unpleasant, speedily absorbed in the air.
Neither Plan should of would obligate Israel to offer a single Arab any kind of “citizenship”. Renewable residency permits, for UP TO 5 years, and based on ?behaviour/relationship with Jewish neighbours should be the only criterion, and allowable/limited BY LAW . Of course the “minor” issues like “links to terrorism” etc, are part of it. In other words… a vetting FAR deeper than even one at Ben Gurion Airport.
Whilst on the subject, does YESHA “need” to be “annexed”…in light of the irrevocable Balfour Declaration/British Mandate/Anglo-. American Treaty/Art. 80 of UN Charter Document etc.etc. ???….. What effect would annexation, laid on top of these, have.? Would it hammer home the realities, or would it cancel out the vitally important aforementioned Irrevocable International Agreements…
After all, “annexation” can be reversed, …….. All today’s talk, even by knowledgeable people, is about “annexation”, whilst our solid rocks emerging from the San Remo Conference seem to be forgotten or ignored…..??
I often think tht Singr, hs less “smrts” thn the crtoon he infllbly uses for support, or to mke his rticle more ttrctive. In my opinion Kirschen does not lay himself put to produce good crtoon, but 3rd rt one, probbly t rock bottom price.