T. Belman. In my well read article dated April 1, 2017 titled The Ultimate Alternate Solution, I proposed just that.
“Consider for a moment, that if Jordan agrees to grant citizenship to all Palestinians, as their law currently provides, and invites the return of all of them to live and work in Jordan, the conflict would soon be ended.
“As part of this solution, all Palestinian refugees enrolled with UN Relief And Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East could be repatriated to Jordan and given citizenship. Thus UNRWA could be wound up and the current UNRWA funding could be transferred to Jordan to assist in the resettlement.
“Currently the US gives $370 million to UNRWA, $300 million to the Palestinian Authority (PA) and $1.3 Billion to Jordan annually. The EU also gives money to the PA and to Jordan. These monies could be redirected to Jordan to kick start this repatriation. Others, including Israel could contribute. In time, the US and EU subsidies could be phased out.”
Kushner raised the issue with Jordanian officials during a visit to Amman, Foreign Policy reports. Move appears to be part of broader effort to halt UNRWA, which Kushner allegedly called ‘corrupt and inefficient’
HAARETZ
Jared Kushner, U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser and son-in-law, has reportedly pressured Jordan to strip the refugee status of more than two million registered Palestinians living in the country.
According to a report in the U.S. magazine Foreign Policy, Kushner raised the issue with Jordanian officials in the region during his visit there in June.
Hasan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, claimed that the senior aide’s move was part of a broader effort by him and the U.S. administration to render UNRWA, the UN aid agency providing relief to Palestinian, irrelevant and halt its work in Jordan and in other countries in the Middle East.
“[Kushner said] the resettlement has to take place in the host countries and these governments can do the job that UNRWA was doing,” Ashrawi said.
The Palestinians’ chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, told reporters after Kushner’s visit to Jordan in June that the latter’s delegation said it was ready to stop UNRWA funding and redirect the sum allocated to the agency to Jordan and other countries that host refugees.
Emails written by Kushner and obtained by Foreign Policy point to Kushner’s evident dismay with the UN agency as well as to discreet attempts to put a stop to UNRWA’s work — a move that would essentially render millions of Palestinian refugees status-less.
“It is important to have an honest and sincere effort to disrupt UNRWA,” the senior aide reportedly wrote Trump’s Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt in an email dating back to January 11, 2018. “This [agency] perpetuates a status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesn’t help peace,” Kushner said of UNRWA.
Other such expressions were reportedly repeated in different exchanges the president’s son-in-law had with other U.S. officials.
Kushner, who has been toiling on a peace plan that Washington is slated to present to Israel and the Palestinians in the near future, was trying to disrupt the UN agency’s work as part of a bigger move, which American and Palestinian officials say is an attempt to completely remove the Palestinian refugee issue from the negotiations table.
“Our goal can’t be to keep things stable and as they are [S]ometimes you have to strategically risk breaking things in order to get there,” Kushner was quoted as writing to Greenblatt in the same email.
The U.S. administration has helped fund UNRWA since it was formed in 1949 to provide aid to Palestinians displaced from their homes following the establishment of the State of Israel. The agency is considered to be a significant actor in the region, mainly due to the fact that it has been providing food and other essential services to Palestinian refugees for decades.
But while previous administrations have considered the agency to be an important contributor to the region, the newly disclosed emails reveal the current team in the White House may be willing to tip the balance in Israel’s favor by changing the terms of the Palestinian refugee issue and downgrading UNRWA’s significance as well as the scope of its activity.
I agreee with you, Bear; and I think Edgar also knows you are right. If the Pals would be content with a two state solution, they would have accepted the Jordan River as the boundary long ago. All the provisos that Edgar proposes do indeed remind me of Sharon’s words when he ethnically cleansed Gaza of Jews, and also of what was said at the time Oslo was signed.
The Arabs will accept defeat, when they find they are cornered and have no other choice than annihilation. In today’s “Nicey-Nicey” Liberal World Order, that situation is “unthinkable”. When the LWO is destroyed, Israel has a chance at peace with the Arabs. The Order’s destruction is what President Trump ought to be pursuing; and indeed, he might be. More likely, WWIII aka Armageddon will bring it about.
@ Edgar G.:
That is what Sharon said about Gaza when he pulled out. That Israel would just ruthlessly squash it if anything occurred. Three wars and counting.
@ Bear Klein:
They could obviously try to destroy Israel, but in this case we’d be fighting an enemy from interior lines, –a HUGE difference– not an almost totally guerrilla war under our noses, as we are today. We are trying to put down a type of banditry which has a thousand arms that spring up on all sides and when cut off, can regrow like a mythical monster of legend.
If the potential Jordan became as you postulate, Israel could then be at war with an adjacent country, easily reached, with little in the way of massive armaments, and could be defeated into unconditional surrender. The eventual outcome might evolve to be like Europe after WW2.
@ Bear Klein:
You make very good points here. Unless as part of the agreement, there are Israeli inspectors at the point of entry, and the route to Gaza is monitored all the way for possible smuggling additions.
At the same time, the “system” of “distribution” inside Gaza itself needs to be materially altered, and nothing should go through the hands of Hamas. That’s a MUST. else there is no improvement, and everything will sink back to normal with dangers vastly amplified.
Egypt is “willing” to take money from almost anyone. their tongue is collectively hanging out over the chasm of utter bankruptcy. In fact \i believe they reached that point more than a few years ago already, and only keep going by foreign grants and donations.
People have been kicking around versions of Jordanian options for a long time. So to speak 1922 in the partition of Palestine (Jewish part) and Arab part Trans-Jordan. Labor Alignment Governments from 1967 until 1974 had their versions.
Dr. Aryeh Eldad in 2004 plan “Two States for Two Nations on Two Sides of the Jordan River.” He has been promoting closing UNRWA and having Pal-Arabs become Jordanian citizens and hopefully moving to Jordan since then.
The crux of the matter is always that the Pal-Arabs want to destroy the Jewish State of Israel. That is the root of the conflict.
So if the Pal-Arabs are moved to Jordan or elsewhere I am fine with that. If Jordan gives them citizenship great. They must never get a state west of the Jordan River. Build a city or two in Jordan with Pal-Arabs from Judea/Samaria/Jerusalem/etc spur the Jordanian economy.
Just as long as this Pal-Arab-Jordanian State does not become the newest version of the PLO trying to destroy Israel.
Could be.
@ Ted Belman:
So Ted, you believe the unveiled plan is your Jordanian option? Including Mudar Zahran taking over?
In Gaza it appears the Egyptians are willing to take foreign money to build an airport and seaport for Gaza on Egyptian soil and open the crossing in Rafah permanently. If this happens Israel will loose control of what goes into Gaza. Bribes will take care of Egyptians manning checks for weapons smuggling. So Hamas will have the opening they have been waiting for. This appears to be part of the USA plan?
If Bibi allows this to happen it will make a very poor security situation in the South of Israel go completely uncontrolled. Terrorist regime allowed to arm almost unfettered. Could the government of Israel be this incompetent? I sure hope not.
COULD IT BE THAT THE “PEACE PLAN” YET TO BE UNVEILED IS THE JORDAN OPTION PROPOSED BY ME?
UNRWA dissolution is needed to help the eradication of the Pal-Arab dreams of destroying Israel.
@ broseman:
Well there were stated to be about 20,000 two years ago, and today they must have reduced down to about 18,237.5. Next year P.G. it should be even fewer.
All these glorifying comments re Kushner are good for his ego! But it will not happen, regardless of what the chief terrorist says and thinks. Kushner reports to pres trump but between pres trump and G-D is the real McCoy ‘u s dep of state.’ They will overide all earthly things and beings. “U s dep of state’ is the worlds #1 ISRAEL hater and the worlds #1terrorist lover.
Gotta love our guy the PREZ. We know there are only 20,000 refugees all over 70 years of age. Their descendants are a UN Anti Semitic invention. Only Palestinian descendants get refugee status. In all other people of the world descendants do not get refugee status. My hopes and prayers go with our wonderful team Greenblatt, Haley, Kushner, Friedman, Pompeo, and Bolton. This sounds wonderful.
Anything UNWRA touches goes bad.
Good for Trump, sending his Orthodox son-in-law in as an attack dog. That is what previous administrations sorely lacked. It doesn’t hurt, either, that Kushner looks like an Eagle Scout (before the Scouts went sideways).
I’ll hand it to Jared Kushner: He’s a bright fellow, who knows how to get things done. He’s been charged with engineering a peace agreement between Israel and the Arabs; and UNWRA is a major impediment to achieving this. There are no flies on that guy
Well UNRWA is unnecessary and only serves to keep the conflict going. It is a redundant agency as the same standards should be applied to the Arabs who have claimed to be Palestinians as are applied to all other nation’s refugees, they should receive citizenship where they are. Descendents of refugees are simply not refugees. UN double standards are always biased against Israel and this practise needs to stop.