Israel-Jordan negotiations could follow PLO threat to boycott Trump
The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) threat to refuse to negotiate with Israel unless President Trump withdraws his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel could see Jordan replacing the PLO as Israel’s negotiating partner to end the 100 years-old Arab-Jewish conflict…writes David Singer.
This threat – unless unconditionally revoked – would give Trump the opportunity to consign the PLO to the political wilderness by inviting Jordan to step in and negotiate with Israel over Trump’s eagerly-anticipated “ultimate deal”.
Jordan-Israel negotiations would offer Jordan the opportunity to recover a substantial part of Judea and Samaria (“West Bank”) annexed by Jordan in 1950 – albeit illegally – but subsequently lost to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War (“disputed territory”).
Should Jordan buck at entering into such negotiations – some 60% of the disputed territory – under Israel’s full administrative and security control since the 1995 Oslo Accords and containing just 5% of the West Bank’s entire Arab population (“Area C”) – could be annexed by Israel.
PLO-Israel negotiations over the last twenty-five years – with United Nations, UNESCO and European Union backing – aimed at creating a 22nd Arab state in the disputed territory for the first time ever in recorded history – have failed abysmally.
Such a State was an artificially contrived creation that could never be justified on historic, geographic or demographic grounds. It had actually been rejected by successive Arab leaderships on many occasions since first being proposed by the 1937 Peel Commission.
Joint 1994 Nobel Peace Prize winners – Israeli leaders Shimon Peres and Yitzchak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat – all understood Jordan’s pivotal role in ending the Jewish-Arab conflict:
- Jordan is the major part (78%) of the Palestinian Arabs’ homeland according to article 2 of the PLO Charter.
Farouk Kadoumi – Head of the Political Department of the PLO – reinforced this reality – telling Newsweek on 14 March 1977:
“Jordanians and Palestinians are considered by the PLO as one people.”
- Peres declaredon 31 August 1978:
“Jordan is also Palestine… I’m against two Arab countries and against another Palestinian country, against an Arafat state. Today 50 percent of the inhabitants of Jordan are Palestinians and that is the Palestinian state…
Peres backed this up – telling the Jewish Telegraph on April 19, 1991:
“It is not obstinacy to regard the populations of Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza as having greater similarities than differences. The Jordan River is not deep enough to turn into a knife blade serving to cut one piece of territory into three slices. Most of Jordan’s population are Palestinians: the residents of the West Bank are Jordanian citizens and Jordan has distributed tens of thousands of passports to residents in the Gaza Strip. Jordan is therefore an existing State. It has an army. There is therefore no need to set up another State, another army.
- Yitzchak Rabin told The Australian newspaper on May 27, 1985:
“One tiny State between Israel and Jordan will solve nothing. It will be a time bomb.”
Rabin’s solution to end the conflict:
“… the Palestinians should have a sovereign State which includes most of the Palestinians. It should be Jordan with a considerable part of the West Bank and Gaza. East of the Jordan River there is enough room to settle the Palestinian refugees.”
Jordan-Israel negotiations on the political future of the disputed territory open up options to resolve the Arab-Jewish conflict never before considered. If Trump’s Jerusalem Declaration helps bring such negotiations about – then Trump could well succeed where all other American Presidents before him have failed.
Taking on Trump could herald the PLO’s political demise after 54 years of failed leadership.
David Singer is a Sydney Lawyer and Foundation Member of the International Analysts Network
Spot on David. Too many people listen to Main Stream Media Vultures and have no clue of the truth or facts.
Eleanora
Facts – not fiction – must eventually triumph in this long-running conflict which could and should have been resolved in 1922.
The UN, EU, UNRWA, and UNESCO have been been brainwashed and hoodwinked by an artificially constructed and contrived PLO narrative that has no substance in fact.
They just keep digging a deeper hole for themselves the longer they dance to the PLO tune.
President Trump has got the PLO’s measure. If the PLO wants to boycott Trump – they will bear serious consequences.
What an interesting article David!
BUT, it seems to me to be optimistic in the extreme to speculate on such a possibility.
Where is the evidence that the Jordanians even have the authority and possibility of stepping into this role, even if they wanted to?
President Trump appears to be cultivating relationships with the Saudi’s as a means of influencing the Arab world to accept the legitimacy of Israel’s right to exist, which really is the major issue preventing Israel from engaging in ‘peace talks’ with anyone.
President Trump proclaims himself to be the consummate “dealmaker”! As you have rightly pointed out, he follows an impressive array of failures in this area. So he cannot do any worse can he?
Roy
The Jordanians certainly have the authority to enter into negotiations with Israel for the following reasons:
1. Jordan and Israel are the two successor states to the Mandate for Palestine already exercising sovereignty in 95% of the territory comprised in the Mandate
2. Jordan was the last Arab state to occupy Judea and Samaria between 1948 and 1967
3. Arabs residing in Judea and Samaria had Jordanian citizenship from 1950 to 1988
4. Negotiations between Jordan and Israel would be conducted under their 1994 Peace Treaty where the negotiating parameters for such contentious issues as refugees, water and Jerusalem have already been agreed.
5. Jordan has already recognised Israel’s right to exist by virtue of the peace treaty signed between them
6. Redrawing a new agreed international border between them should be a piece of cake taking perhaps three months at the most – finally concluding the two-state solution promised by the Mandate in 1922.
7. The PLO never claimed sovereignty over Judea and Samaria in its original 1964 Charter
If the PLO want to boycott Trump then the field is wide open for another Arab partner to step in. No better Arab State is better qualified than Jordan.
So David,
Who would have the authority to BEGIN such action?
What would be the U.N. reaction do you think?
And IF it were successful, who would then bring the occupants of Gaza and Judea/Samaria into line?
The Government’s of Israel and Jordan would have the authority to enter into negotiations as sovereign independent States already enjoying a signed peace treaty with the objective of drawing a new border between their two states.
The UN would go off its brain but would be totally irrelevant. The UN has achieved no solution for the last 70 years and is in no position to dictate to the two sovereign negotiating states of Israel and Jordan trying to end the conflict that the UN has only succeeded in prolonging.
There would be a minimal number of Jews or Arabs left on the “wrong side” of any new border arrangements. They would be given the right to live where they presently reside and be granted citizenship of the state in which they live or alternatively offered compensation to relocate to the “right side” of any new border arrangements.
It is amazing what two sets of negotiating teams negotiating in good faith and armed only with pencils, liquid paper and erasers can achieve in ensuring very few Jews or Arabs will be faced with the choice to move or stay.
In my estimation about 99% will just keep on living where they presently reside as Israeli or Jordanian citizens.
Thankyou David for your insighful analysis of this possibility.
One can only hope that the “movers and shakers” of both Israel, Jordan and the U.S. take as much interest in this proposition as have the correspondents who follow your writings. They could do a lot worse than invite your participation!!
8. A Palestinian state is a greater danger to Jordan than to Israel.
Spot on Gary
This all makes a lot of sense, from your mouth to g-ds ears :
David
… and also, UN, UNESCO and European Union ears.
Enough of the pretense and fiction that has prevailed for the last 54 years since the PLO was founded. Trump’s declaration on Jerusalem was the first shot fired across the bows of these deniers of the history, geography and demography of “Palestine”.
Another possible, even likely scenario is that the PLO will feign “reconciliation” with Trump, then resume its strategy of rejectionism, violation of the Oslo Accords, deception, double dealing, obfuscation.
Leon
I think President Trump can identify fakery and hypocrisy a mile off.