[Published 16 April 2019]
In a closed-door meeting with members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee — King Abdullah of Jordan reportedly said the White House had given him:
“zero visibility into the most fraught part of their peace plan: how it proposes to divide Israeli and Palestinian territory.”
His Majesty — in complete denial — could not bring himself to call that territory “Judea-Samaria and Gaza.”
Abdullah has seen Trump ditch the Palestine Liberation Organisation financially and diplomatically over its continuing refusal to negotiate with Israel on any Trump proposal to divide sovereignty in Judea and Samaria between Jews and Arabs.
Presidential candidate Ronald Reagan laid out Jordan’s pivotal role in negotiating any such division in 1980:
“Israel and Jordan are the two Palestinian states envisioned and authorized by the United Nations. Jordan is now recognized in some 80% of the old territory of Palestine. Israel and Jordan are the parties primarily authorized to settle the future of the unallocated territories in accordance with the principles of the mandate and the provisions of Resolutions 242 and 338”In 1982 duly-elected President Reagan made it clear that peace could not be achieved by the formation of an independent Palestinian state and the United States would not support the establishment of such a state.
Reagan added:
“There is, however, another way to peace. The final status of these lands must, of course, be reached through the give-and-take of negotiations; but it is the firm view of the United States that self-government by the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza in association with Jordan offers the best chance for a durable, just and lasting peace.”Reagan concluded:
“When the border is negotiated between Jordan and Israel, our view on the extent to which Israel should be asked to give up territory will be heavily affected by the extent of true peace and normalization and the security arrangements offered in return.”Abdullah’s father — King Hussein — did not take up Reagan’s invitation.
The creation of an additional Arab State between Israel and Jordan — favoured by President Bush, President Obama and ostensibly Kings Hussein and Abdullah — is dead in the water following Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent re-election as Israel’s Prime Minister for another four years.
Netanyahu promised pre-election to apply Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria.
Having recognised Israel’s sovereignty in the Golan Heights — Trump could do likewise for those parts of Judea and Samaria coming under Israeli sovereignty.
The circle will be completed for Netanyahu who told the United Nations on 11 December 1984:
“Clearly, in Eastern and Western Palestine, there are only two peoples, the Arabs and the Jews. Just as clearly, there are only two states in that area, Jordan and Israel. The Arab State of Jordan, containing some three million Arabs, does not allow a single Jew to live there. It also contains 4/5 of the territory originally allocated by this body’s predecessor, the League of Nations, for the Jewish National Home. The other State, Israel, has a population of over four million, of which one sixth is Arab. It contains less than 1/5 of the territory originally allocated to the Jews under the Mandate…. It cannot be said, therefore, that the Arabs of Palestine are lacking a state of their own. The demand for a second Palestinian Arab State in Western Palestine, and a 22nd Arab State in the world, is merely the latest attempt to push Israel back into the hopelessly vulnerable armistice lines of 1949.”King Abdullah should not miss the opportunity his father rejected in 1982.
Zero visibility will disappear when King Abdullah opens his eyes.
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. His cartoons can be viewed at Drybonesblog
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