Saudi Arabia tells Biden & UN: No State between Israel & Jordan

 

Saudi Arabia has sent US President Joe Biden and the United Nations (UN) a clear message to abandon the idea of creating a new Arab State between Israel and Jordan in an article published in Al-Arabiya News on 8 June headlined: The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine  

Its author - Ali Shihabi - is not your ordinary run-of-the mill journalist. He supports and has the ear of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) - the controversial next successor to the Saudi throne.

MBS is the driving force behind NEOM--a brand new US$500 billion megacity to be built on 26500km² in northern Saudi Arabia - an area larger than Israel - powered by 100% renewable energy. The project includes a bridge spanning the Red Sea - connecting NEOM to Africa. NEOM will be close to the borders of Jordan, Egypt and Israel. Shihabi has been a member of NEOM’s Advisory Board since 2020. 

MBS has not sought to publically distance himself from Shihabi’s article. 

Shihabi lays the groundwork for his proposal:

"The basically insurmountable power imbalance between the Arabs and Israelis, let alone between the Palestinians and Israelis, argues for a radical rethinking of the approach to solving the Palestine problem. Israel is a reality firmly implanted on the ground that has to be accepted, however grudgingly, by the region around it"

Shihabi then proposes his solution:

"The Palestinian problem can only be solved today if it is redefined. The issue in this day and age for people should be not so much the ownership of ancestral land but more the critical need to have a legal identity—a globally respected citizenship that allows a person to operate in the modern world. Labor in this day and age is mobile and having citizenship in a country that facilitates such mobility is critical to human development. The most logical vehicle for this redefinition and hence for the solution to the Palestine problem is the kingdom of Jordan. Over the last seventy-five years, Jordan has developed into a relatively well-governed state, although the impact of regional political turmoil has caused it to fail economically and become heavily reliant on foreign aid for its survival. It is this Jordanian governance infrastructure that needs to be captured and put to productive use in integrating the millions of Palestinians and Jordanians into a modern, reasonably well-functioning state that would, in an era of real peace and economic integration with Jordan’s neighbors, have a much higher chance of growth and prosperity. This proposed enlarged kingdom would include present-day Jordan, Gaza, and the West Bank (areas populated by Palestinians attached in a contiguous manner and physically connected to Jordan, i.e., not broken up into islands)."

Shihabi dismisses Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Jordan claims to be separate entities:

"Jordanians and Palestinians are as similar as any people can be. They are Sunni Arabs from the same neighbourhood. Merging them will not create any long-term ethnic or sectarian fault lines." 

Significantly Shihabi’s proposal does not call for Saudi Arabia to replace Jordan as Custodian of the Islamic Holy Sites in Jerusalem - a fear long-held by Jordan. This Saudi concession should help embolden Jordan to begin negotiations with Israel on this Saudi Arabian initiative - that could see:

• The 1994 Israel-Jordan Peace Treaty extended to 100% of the territory of former Palestine - instead of the 95% currently covered
• The two-state solution contemplated by article 6 of the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the 1945 UN Charter finally brought to fruition

Endorsement of this Saudi initiative by Biden and the UN will greatly advance the prospect of finally ending the 100 years-old unresolved Jewish-Arab conflict.

Author’s note: The cartoon--commissioned exclusively for this article--is by Yaakov Kirschen aka "Dry Bones"- one of Israel’s foremost political and social commentators--whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades.

Biden should push for Jordan & Israel to divide Judea & Samaria

 

President Biden's proposed visit to the "West Bank" is promising to end up becoming a fruitless trip to an artificially-coined destination supposedly inhabited by a mythical ancient "Palestinian people". 

This scenario is far removed from the biblical and historic realities that had existed for 3000 years prior to April 24, 1950 - when Biden's destination was called "Judea and Samaria" – the ancient and biblical heartland of the Jewish people. 

Biden's Press Secretary - Karine Jean-Pierre – exposed Biden's – and her--apparent ignorance of these indisputable facts when announcing the President's forthcoming visit in these terms: 

"The President will also visit the West Bank to consult with the Palestinian Authority and to reiterate his strong support for a two-state solution, with equal measures of security, freedom, and opportunity for the Palestinian people.

United Nations resolutions and Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) propaganda has used Jean-Pierre's faux narrative since 1967 in a concerted effort to deny the Jewish people have any right to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem under article 6 of the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the 1945 United Nations Charter. 

This post-1967 narrative differs from that used on 1 December 1948 when a conference organized in Jericho and attended by numerous Arab delegations including mayors of Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, the Arab Legion Military Governor General and military governors from all districts, and other notables adopted the following resolution:

"Palestine Arabs desire unity between Transjordan and Arab Palestine and therefore make known their wish that Arab Palestine be annexed immediately to Transjordan. They also recognize Abdullah as their King and request him proclaim himself King of new territory."

The Jericho Conference came after:

• The Mandatory Power – Great Britain – had granted independence on June 27, 1946 to Transjordan – 78% of the territory comprised in the 1922 Mandate for Palestine located East of the Jordan River
• Transjordan had invaded Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem– 4% of the Mandate territory located West of the Jordan River – on May 15, 1948--driving out all the Jews living there as it assumed control of these areas.

The Jericho resolution confirms:

• There was then no identifiable "Palestinian people" – only "Palestine Arabs".
• The leaders of the "Palestine Arabs" were not calling for the creation of a second Arab State in the territory formerly comprised in the Mandate for Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital –in addition to Transjordan.

Despite International and Arab League objections - unification of these two exclusively-occupied Arab territories - comprising some 82% of the territory of the Mandate for Palestine located on both sides of the Jordan River - was achieved on April 24, 1950 – resulting in:

• "Judea and Samaria" being designated the "West Bank"
• The newly-unified entity being named "Jordan"
• "Palestine Arabs" living in the "West Bank" becoming "Jordanian citizens"
• A two-state solution in former Palestine:  one Jewish State called Israel in 18% of former Palestine and one Arab State called Jordan in the remaining 82% of Palestine.

The Palestinian people were only identified for the first time in the 1964 PLO Charter - but the PLO expressly did not claim to exercise regional sovereignty over the "West Bank of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan" under article 24,

 Unification lasted until Jordan's loss of Judea Samaria and East Jerusalem to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War – although its Arab inhabitants enjoyed Jordanian citizenship until 31 July 1988. 

Dividing Judea and Samaria between Israel and Jordan in direct negotiations aimed at redrawing their existing international border is certainly attainable. 

Biden should push for this two-state solution that accords with history, geography and demography.

Author's note: The cartoon--commissioned exclusively for this article--is by Yaakov Kirschen aka "Dry Bones"--one of Israel's foremost political and social commentators--whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades.

Biden, Israel & UN have two 100-year-anniversaries to celebrate

 

President Joe Biden's postponement of his forthcoming trip to Israel this month due to "scheduling factors" gives Biden, the United Nations (UN) and Israel the opportunity to celebrate at UN headquarters the 100th anniversaries of American and international support for the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people. 

 In announcing Biden's postponed visit US Ambassador to Israel Thomas Nides said:

"I'll bet that Joe Biden has been to Israel and the Middle East more times in his career than every American president combined. He calls himself a Zionist, he loves this place and I think there's no question about his commitment to this place."

The first Zionist Congress in Basle in 1897 had declared: 

"Zionism aims at establishing for the Jewish people a publicly and legally assured home in Palestine."

America's commitment to Zionism's ambitious goal came on 30 June 1922 – when both houses of the US Congress passed the following joint resolution:

"Favoring the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled. That the United States of America favors the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which should prejudice the civil and religious rights of Christian and all other non-Jewish communities in Palestine, and that the holy places and religious buildings and sites in Palestine shall be adequately protected." 

The League of Nations (LON) – the UN's predecessor--closely followed the US Congress on 24 July 1922--proclaiming the Mandate for Palestine:

Recognising "the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country"

On September 16, 1922 a memorandum relating to article 25 of the Mandate was presented by the British Government to the Council of the League notifying it that the reconstitution of the Jewish National Home was to occur only in 22% of the Mandate territory west of the Jordan River -and not in Transjordan – the remaining 78% of the Mandate territory east of the Jordan River  

The area set aside for the Jewish National Home in Britain's Memorandum included Judea and Samaria and Jerusalem – the 3000-years old ancient and biblical heartland of the Jewish people. 

In 1948 Transjordan (having gained its independence in 1946) attacked and conquered Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem - driving out all the Jews then living there and unifying Transjordan, Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem in 1950 into one territorial unit - renamed Jordan 

Israel's capture of Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War offered the hope that the provisions of the Mandate would be finally fulfilled.

Instead the rights of Jews under the Mandate to return and settle in Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem were arbitrarily shredded by the UN--even though such rights had been expressly preserved by article 80 of the UN's own Charter. 

The UN to its eternal shame re-designated Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem as "Occupied Palestinian Territory", rather than "Jewish Mandated Territory" - passing scores of UN resolutions declaring as "illegal" the right of Jews to live there. 

It is the UN that is acting illegally in defiance of its own Charter. 

The upcoming 100-year-anniversaries of the momentous decisions made in 1922 by America and the League of Nations supporting self-determination for the Jewish people need to be honoured and implemented.

Author's note: The cartoon--commissioned exclusively for this article--is by Yaakov Kirschen aka "Dry Bones"- one of Israel's foremost political and social commentators--whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades.