Is Jordan Palestine?

By Douglas Bloomfield

[Published 20 February 2014]


Jordanians are becoming a minority in their own country, outnumbered by refugees from the conflicts around them.

The latest are 600,000+ Syrians who have fled the war in their country that has become a humanitarian disaster, and 200,000 Iraqis who have seen renewed fighting erupt in their country as bombings are a daily occurrence in Baghdad and other cities.

An estimated half to two thirds of Jordan's population are Palestinians. Unlike other countries, Jordan has given them citizenship, although not full equality. The greatest threat to the Hashemite regime may come from them and their brethren across the Jordan River, not the Syrian or Iraqi borders.

West Bank Palestinians look to the day of confederation with the East Bank, preferably after they attain statehood on their own. An irredentist Palestinian state, especially if Hamas succeeds in its goal of supplanting Fatah, could pose a mortal threat to Jordan's future. Being landlocked and having minimal natural resources, Palestine may feel a need to expand, and to pursue that course along the path of least resistance, eastward. Confederation could be only a beginning.

Most Jordanians would rather see Palestinians leave their country to live in the new state of Palestine. Unlike many Palestinians and Greater Israel nationalists they reject any suggestion that Jordan is Palestine.

Read more about it in my Washington Watch column this week.

Palestine - Kerry confronts ghosts in state of confusion

[Published 16 February 2014 - Jerusalem Post]


The semantic circus that first created a people known as the Palestinians in 1964 - who now claim an entitlement to their own independent state in " the occupied Palestinian Territories" - reached absurd heights with the following bizarre news item this week:

"The Israeli authorities have blocked 70 patients from Gaza from entering Israel to receive medical treatment because their transfer documents were marked “State of Palestine,” officials told AFP on Wednesday.

Until recently, official stationery has used the term “Palestinian territories.”

But the logo was changed in mid-December, a year after the Palestinians won recognition as a UN observer state, despite fierce Israeli opposition."

This "War of the Letterheads" adds a new dimension to the conflict between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).

The "State of Palestine" was admitted as a member State of UNESCO on 31 October 2011 by a vote of 107/14 and as a non-observer State at the United Nations (UN) on 29 November 2012 by a vote of 138/9.

Those States voting in favor ignored the legal requirements of article 1 of the Montevideo Convention 1933 which declares:

"The state as a person of international law should possess the following qualifications:
(a) a permanent population;
(b) a defined territory;
(c) government; and
(d) capacity to enter into relations with the other states"

Those states dissenting or abstaining took the view that any State of Palestine to be created for the first time ever in recorded history could only arise as a result of negotiations conducted under the 1993 Oslo Accords, the 2003 Bush Roadmap and the 2007 Annapolis conference between the designated parties - Israel and the Palestinian Authority - ("the agreed negotiating framework").

John V Whitbeck - an international lawyer and adviser to the Palestinian team negotiating with Israel - had flagged the likelihood of this latest War of the Letterheads in an article written in the Cyprus Mail on January 13, 2013.

Whitbeck revealed that the Palestinian Authority “had been absorbed and replaced by the "State of Palestine” in a decree issued by Mahmoud Abbas on January 3, 2013 and signed by him acting in his capacities as president of the State of Palestine and chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO.

Whitbeck’s confirmation of the demise of the "Palestinian Authority" with the newly declared "State of Palestine" should surely have signalled the end of further negotiations under the agreed negotiating framework - specifically designed to achieve the birth of that very state.

For the full article read:

http://www.jpost.com/Experts/Palestine-Kerry-confronts-ghosts-in-state-of-confusion-341548?prmusr=Vo0puH%2bGQrNgpvj0hOn9OF5voApLGPfhXKAJibhCAuxInellBLluxo2r9tGo358l

Does Jordan Really Want an Independent Palestinian State?

The U.S.-brokered Israeli-Palestinian conflict negotiations have yet to yield any tangible results.

Recently, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu paid a surprise visit to Jordan’s King Abdullah to discuss these issues.

While Jordan officially supports a two-state solution, Jordan’s leaders have also quietly expressed serious concerns over the parameters of a future Palestinian state.

Does Jordan truly want an independent Palestinian state?

“The Jordanians want a solution that doesn’t undermine the domestic stability of the Hashemite kingdom. [One that] creates a relatively secure border and protects their interests in Jerusalem. The Israeli-Palestinian negotiations touch upon their national security,” Aaron David Miller—a former U.S. Mideast advisor and negotiator, and now a distinguished scholar at the Wilson Center think tank—told JNS.org.

To read the article in full:

http://www.algemeiner.com/2014/01/28/does-jordan-really-want-an-independent-palestinian-state/

Palestine - Jordan Not Jumping For Joy

Jordan is becoming increasingly unhappy at the role US Secretary of State John Kerry might be planning for it in his eagerly anticipated framework agreement designed to end the 130 years old Jewish-Arab conflict.

The Jordan Times reported on 28 January:

Figures representing professional unions and political parties are planning to hold a national conference to "protect Jordan and Palestine and repulse Kerry's peace plan". And a number of lawmakers signed a memorandum to convene a special Lower House session to discuss Kerry's controversial proposals.

Jordan's main opposition group, the Muslim Brotherhood, issued a communiqué last week warning of an impending plan to liquidate the Palestinian cause, which, it said, threatens both Jordanians and Palestinians.

It said that the current regional situation will encourage the US and Israel to impose their conditions on the Palestinians and put pressure on Jordan.

One Islamist leader, Salem Al Falahat, told a local news website that while detailed information on Kerry's proposals is scarce, it is clear that current negotiations will not serve the interests of Palestinians or Jordanians.

Jordan's central role in bringing Kerry's push for peace to fruition arises from the following facts:

1.The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Charter claims that "Palestine, with the boundaries it had during the British Mandate, is an indivisible territorial unit."

2.Jordan and Israel are the two successor States to the British Mandate – Jordan exercising sovereignty in 78% of the territory covered by the Mandate - and Israel in a further 17%.

3. Stuck between them is the West Bank – 4% of the Mandate territory – which was:
(i) conquered and occupied by Transjordan in 1948 after having being called "Judea and Samaria" from biblical times until United Nations Resolution 181 (II) in 1947
(ii)then renamed "the West Bank" after being unified with Transjordan in 1950 to create a new territorial entity renamed "Jordan"

(iii) lost to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.

Read the full article at:

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=16017

"Palestine":History and Geography Can Unblock Deadlock

It is a pity the US State Department chooses to focus on the remarks of Israeli Ministers, such as the private aside of the Minister of Defence labelling US Secretary of State John Kerry as being delusional and messianic - rather than concentrating on PLO Chairman Abbas's very public remarks that go to the heart of the 130 years old Jewish-Arab conflict:

"Israel's problem is that the Palestinians know more than the Israelis about history and geography. We talk about what we know"

Is Abbas correct in his contention or has he become a victim of his own propaganda?

The answer depends on how one views Abbas's following statement to the United Nations on 26 September 2013:

"However, as representatives of the Palestinian people, we have long been aware of our responsibilities towards our people and had the necessary courage to accept a two-State solution: Palestine and Israel on the borders of 4 June 1967, establishing a Palestinian State on 22% of the land of 'historic Palestine'."

Are the 'West Bank' and Gaza in fact 22% of 'historic Palestine' or do they comprise only 5% of 'historic Palestine'?

Read the full article:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/14508#.Uvrww2KZKXw

Jordan Says No to Kerry "Conspiracy"

Kerry has managed to escalate tensions not only between Israel and the Palestinians, but also between Jordanians and the Palestinians inside Jordan.

Kerry will now have to find a way to calm King Abdullah and his constituents before Jordan slips into civil war.

"Jordan is playing host [to Palestinians] and no agreement can pass without Jordan." — Fatin al-Baddad, Jordanian journalist.

To read the full article:

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4156/jordan-kerry-proposal

Fearful of becoming ‘Palestine,’ Jordan chimes in on peace talks

Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh rejects ‘Jewish’ Israel and stresses Jordanian interests ahead of an expected framework deal

Jordan will not recognize Israel as a Jewish state, the Kingdom’s foreign minister declared, expressing a latent Hashemite fear of Jordan becoming the de-facto Palestinian state.

“Whoever thinks Jordan will become someone’s alternative state is delusional,” Nasser Judeh told members of parliament Sunday evening during an update session on the peace process and the recent visit of US Secretary of State John Kerry to Jordan.

“With regards to the rumors surrounding the Jewish state, Jordan’s consistent position — aligned in this regard with the Palestinian position — is that this formula and this proposal is unacceptable,” Judeh was quoted by the official Petra News Agency as saying. He was apparently referring to reports that Kerry’s framework proposal will provide for recognition of Israel as the Jewish state.

For the full story read:

http://www.timesofisrael.com/fearful-of-becoming-palestine-jordan-chimes-in/