T. Belman. I am totally against such a confederation or annexation by Jordan. The Jordan River is the only border I will accept. On an interim basis , once Mudar is in power, Jordan will replace the PA and manage Areas A and B in their stead. When Israel finally destroys Hamas, Jordan will maintain law and order there. Over the next 10 years about 2 million Arabs from Judea and Samaria and Gaza will emigrate to Jordan. Then Israel will extend Israeli law to all lands west of the Jordan.
The alternative to the two-state solution?
By Joseph Puder, Front Page Mag Jan 13/22
In an unprecedented meeting on December 28, 2021, at the private residence of Benny Gantz in Rosh Haayin (central Israel), Israel’s Defense Minister hosted Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmud Abbas. Gantz approved significant trust-building concessions to the Palestinians. Aiming at bolstering the failing fortunes of the PA and Abu Mazen’s in particular, against the increasing influence of Hamas in the West Bank. Gantz approved the addition of 600 entry permits to Israel for Palestinian businessmen, as well as Palestinian vehicles. Dozens of Palestinian officials will receive VIP permits. Moreover, Gantz agreed to provide the PA with advanced tax payments collected from Palestinians working in Israel worth NIS (New Israeli Shekels) 100 million, or $32 million.
Palestinians in the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and the Gaza Strip cheered the granting of the status approval to some 6,000 Palestinian residents of the West Bank, and 3,500 Gaza residents who appear on the PA’s Population Registry. It means that Israel will officially recognize the legal status of thousands of Palestinians, allowing them free movement within the West Bank.
After years of sheer contempt for Mahmud Abbas and the PA, both in Gaza and the West Bank, Abu Mazen’s stature has risen significantly as a result of “extracting” the above concessions from Gantz. Thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza celebrated with Abbas’ (Abu Mazen’s) picture in hand and a paper confirming their new status. Abbas finally got his cheers. Unfortunately for Abbas, as Bassem Eid, former Palestinian refugee and human rights activist said to me, “the only ones that ‘voted’ for Abbas are his wife and his sons…”
The state of the Palestinian economy in the West Bank and Gaza is on ‘life support,’ with the political situation dismal as well. There is little trust in the leadership among the majority of Palestinians in both Hamas-ruled Gaza and the PA. With corruption, nepotism, absence of the rule-of-law, and basic freedoms, Palestinians are ambivalent about a Palestinian State. In Israel, “around the corner” they see prosperity, freedom, and advancement. An Israeli TV Channel 11 broadcast featured a Gaza resident telling a reporter that he “would forgo a $100 donation from the Qatari government for a permit to work in Israel…”
Resurrecting Abbas’ fortunes won’t change the realities in the PA. It is incapable of providing its people with basic needs, and it lacks the ability to govern. Gaza, under the terrorist group Hamas, is in far worse condition. According to the India-based Business Standard (December 29, 2021) headline “Unemployment rate in Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip exceeds 50%: Palestinian official says.” The poverty rate in the Gaza Strip has grown to 64%, and the rate of food instability among Gaza Strip households has reached 69%. Hamas is committed to the destruction of the Jewish state, but its leadership is indifferent to the suffering of its Gaza residents. Since it took over the Strip from Fatah and the PA in 2007, conditions have sharply deteriorated.
The Palestinians are divided into two separate entities, and neither is ready to negotiate a two-state solution. Abbas and the PA lacking the backing of their own people have no desire to be a partner for peace. Hamas, supported by the radical Shiite Islamic Republic of Iran, and the Muslim Brotherhood leaning regime of Qatar, have incentivized Hamas to focus on instability with periodic terror attacks on Israeli population centers. The results are misery and suffering for the people of Gaza and Israel.
The Palestinian leadership’s unwillingness to compromise with Israel, and its insistence on rights to “all of Palestine,” means a deadlock with no foreseeable solution to the two-state formula. Many Palestinians have already given up on the notion of an independent Palestinian state, and some are advocating a “one state” solution, that is joining the Jewish state in order to eradicate it demographically. This would be a solution that no Israeli politician or layperson would accept. A bi-national state would never work, and it didn’t work under the British Mandate, resulting in endless bloodshed, and chaos. It is for this reason that the British Peel Commission in 1937 resolved that Palestine should be divided into two states: Arab and Jewish. The Jews of Palestine accepted a tiny portion (less than 25% of the land) while the Arab-Palestinians rejected the commission’s recommendation, choosing the murderous way of Hitler’s ally, Haj Amin al-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem. In 1947, the Arab-Palestinians repeated their rejection of a two-state solution, with the same intransigence of “all of Palestine to be ours,” by violence if necessary, but no compromise. This attitude has persisted in Arab leadership to this day.
David Pollock of the Washington Institute (February 25, 2020), headlined his story: “Palestinian Majority Rejects Two-State Solution, But Backs Tactical Compromises.” Citing a recent survey showing that, “Most Palestinian respondents now say they prefer ‘regaining all of historical Palestine’ over permanent peace with Israel.” At the same time, Palestinian majorities in both the West Bank and Gaza voice much more pragmatic views about “the impracticality of a one-state solution, the return of refugees, or armed struggle against Israel.” When asked “What is your personal opinion about what should be the top Palestinian National Priority during the coming five years?” The survey showed in 2017, 30% said, regaining all of historical Palestine from the river to the sea. In 2018, 47% chose the same answer, and in 2020, 66% repeated that priority…
In a Foreign Policy magazine piece (October 15, 2021), Jordanian entrepreneur and writer, Hasan Ismaik argues that, Amman should re-annex the West Bank to end Israel’s occupation, bring peace and prosperity, and give Palestinians democratic rights.” A voluntary confederation between Jordan and the West Bank Palestinians is the most natural and organic solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. First, precedence already exists. Between 1948 and 1967 Jordan occupied the West Bank and ruled it as a federation of sorts. Second, the two parts share the same culture, language (Arabic), and religion (Sunni-Islam). Close familial relations exist between the two entities. About two-thirds of Jordan’s population is already Palestinian, and Jordan’s Queen Rania is the daughter of Palestinian parents. Third, Jordan was originally part of the British Palestine Mandate. To accommodate Abdullah, the elder son of the Sharif of Mecca, and as payback for the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans during WWI, Winston Churchill (British Colonial Secretary at the time) cut off Eastern Palestine to create the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Fourth, Jordan’s 35,000 square miles will provide the space and opportunity for the densely populated West Bank Palestinians. Aqaba and Jordan’s 16 miles of shoreline along the Red Sea would give the landlocked West Bank Palestinians an outlet to the open sea.
Although US President Biden and America’s Western allies are hell bent on the two-state solution, it appears that the Palestinians themselves, Mahmud Abbas included, aren’t too keen on the idea. A one-state solution is a non-starter, for reasons underlined above. In particular, such a solution would lead to conflict and a bloodbath between Arabs and Jews, and it would end the 2000-year yearning of the Jewish people for a refuge and home for the Jewish people, who are still enduring worldwide antisemitism.
Short of maintaining the status-quo, the only natural, organic and viable solution is the idea of a confederation. In time, Israel might even join such an arrangement.
I just watched the interview in Sweden in 2020 that Bear posted. Mudar came across well. Dave Rubin upset me when he said his plan gives a path t loyal citizenship for all Arabs west of the Jordan.
I am strongly against that and have discussed it many times with Mudar. who totally accepts our incentivized emigration to Jordan.
By the way Mudar went t High Scholl in the US and got one or two Masters degrees in the US. He worked six years in the US Intelligence Unit at the US Embassy in Amman.
While he was in the UK he earned a doctorate degree in ME affairs and started working on a second one.
Mudar is genuine.
We spend a great deal of time developing our ideas for co-existence and agreed on everything.
When he was building his coalition he wasn’t shy about what we wanted in the way of co-existence and got the Palestinians leaders to buy into it. So there will be no surprises for them.
@Bear
This has always been a consistent statement of Mudar’s position, in all the interviews I have heard him make, not just those shared on Israpundit. More importantly, this is how he has framed his vision for the future to his people in his own tongue, as I have read. The fact that he has gained the support of the Opposition stating the position of the Jews as allies, the Jordan as a hard border and peaceful coexistence as a desirable outcome, all speaks well of both Mudar’s intentions and his peoples acceptance of a better future. Should Mudar be capable of succeeding in fulfilling his bloodless coup, leading his people towards democratic reforms and establishing a peaceful neighbor and partner with Israel, it will also provide Arabia something it has heretofore lacked, namely a good role model.
I am very hopeful for Mudar’s every success in his attempts. It is, of course, impossible to know how successful he might become in this endeavor, nor for how long this path might be pursued by his people. Should his project come into being, the fruits of a growing partnership between the people on either side of the Jordan, the descendants of the Palestinian Jews and Palestinian Arabs, could have a positive reinforcement of the dividends gained by either side in pursuing the peaceful coexistence and partnership that was so badly betrayed by the Hashemites in their pursuit of always being the most duplicitous players on any field. It can obviously not be known if peace, true peace, is a possible outcome for these two people after the history of the past 100yrs in which Abdullah and his scions have come to squander every opportunity of peace while leading their captured nation towards bankruptcy and general ruin.
For my views, if peace were a possible outcome, it would only come with the rise of a man of great vision and great ability who could lead the Palestinian Arabs towards this better future. From everything I have read on him and heard him say, I believe Mudar is such a man, but his people have to want the future Mudar has designed for them. Given his success in gaining the leadership of the Opposition was a necessary and significant first step. It would be a great victory to see him succeed in many more steps towards his stated goals and I hope to see him do so.
Mudar says he wants a democratic in Jordan with peaceful relations with all with the border at the Jordan River. That certainly works for Israel. Good relations with Jordan would be desirable.
Dave Rubin and Mudar Zahran in a video interview from Sweden in 2020. Mudar sounds decent.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6qMsfuSJOA
I have a simple theory (A DISCLAIMER: this is not about the Ancient Greece or Rome or the subtle differences in the meaning of the terms):
1) there are rulers (the so called “elites”) and subjects;
2) the type of rulership/government depends on the level of development of a particular society and its cultural baggage;
3) the main task of the rulers is “controlling the mob” while taking care of the defense and relative well-being of the country;
4) the difference between the “totalitarian” regimes and republics/democracies boils down to the methods used to control the mob – especially in the last 100 years;
5) the totalitarian regimes use direct influence/orders of the authority(ies) while the republics/democracies use more subtle methods such as psychology, marketing, continuous very skillful brainwashing through various media, schools, etc. (to make the slaves think they are free), “divide-and-rule” method being especially important in the arsenal;
6) most rulers will eventually lose their breaks and cause problems including wars and revolutions;
7) the worst thing that can happen to a government is a takeover of it by the big business – such a country will eventually cease to exist;
8) the subjects in modern states cannot control the rulers (the so called elections are meaningless and the people are not aware of the real events and their meaning).
– from “The Young Immigrunts” (1920) Ring Lardner (1885-1933)
Israel is indeed a parliamentary democracy long in need of a constitution to help it function more efficiently.
The USA is a Constitutional Republic, which appears to now have the most severe divisions since the Civil War Area. It appears to be starting to seriously fray at the seams. Will it be gradually stitched back together or will it tear apart into many pieces is the unknown question.
@sabasarge
LOL…Thanks for the correction