The PLO and Jordan agree: Jordan is Palestine

Last week, at the Islamic Jerusalem Conference at Al-Quds University, Jordanian Minister Hayel Dawod said that "Jordan and Palestine are one body with one spirit."

This week, PA president Mahmoud Abbas agreed, telling his Jordanian hosts “We will maintain our relation as one people living in two states.”

In other words, there already is a Palestinian Arab state. Abbas said so.

This is not just a "gotcha." This fact that most Jordanians are of Palestinian ancestry, that Jordan considered the West Bank to be an integral part of its territory and that most Palestinian Arabs had Jordanian citizenship between 1950 and 1988 are undeniable. It is tough to argue that that West Bank Palestinians are a distinct people from East Bank Palestinians.

But the natural reaction to that fact isn't, as Jordan fears, a mass expulsion of millions of West Bankers so Israel can take it all over. No one who is serious  is advocating that.

The natural response is that Israel could negotiate with Jordan over the borders between their two countries.

When Jordan and Mahmoud Abbas both admit that there is already a Palestinian state east of the Jordan, the rest of the world should reasonably ask why a second Palestinian state is such a necessity.

Well over 95% of West Bank Arabs live under PA rule today. Their lives would clearly improve under Jordanian rule. And they would be living in a Palestinian state. (Jordan was eastern Palestine before World War 1, after all.)

Israel can trust Jordan to ensure that no rockets or terror attacks originate in its territory. Israel would absorb the Arabs who live in Area C, or whatever is agreed would stay with Israel, eliminating the bogus "apartheid" charge. Israel can be far more flexible with Jordan as a peace partner than they can with the PLO, and the Palestinians would end up with much more.

The fact that the West doesn't even contemplate such a solution, one that is far superior to any other two-state solution, proves as well as anything else that Palestinians are not serious about peace with Israel. They don't want a solution - they want an excuse to keep attacking, with terror as well as diplomatically and with public opinion. A realistic solution that benefits Israel in the slightest is anathema because the entire purpose of a Palestinian state is to hurt - and eventually eliminate - Israel.

That is why they spend so much effort on things like FIFA and NGOs and the UN. That's why they refuse to negotiate seriously. That explains every single thing they do. 

It is well past time for the West to wake up to this simple, irrefutable fact.

(h/t Yoel)