David,

You are a one trick pony.

You pointed out in your article:

"The subsequent annexation of the West Bank by Transjordan two years later was only recognised by Great Britain and Pakistan. The failure of other members of the United Nations to recognise such annexation has prolonged a conflict that with a little bit of give and take could have been resolved more than 60 years ago by negotiations between Israel, Egypt and Jordan."

I would rewrite it:

The subsequent annexation of the West Bank by Transjordan two years later was only recognised by Great Britain and Pakistan. The failure of Great Britain and Pakistan to recognise an untenable situation while other members of the United Nations were aware of the fact that the Palestinians had developed a separate identity has prolonged a conflict that with a little bit of give and take could have been resolved more than 60 years ago by negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

The conflict could be resolved by the creation of a secular, democratic state between the Jordan and the Mediterranean which did not discriminate among its citizens on the basis of religion and ethnicity. In this secular, democratic state Jews and Arabs could live in peace maintaining their respective identities without drawing political boundaries around themselves. Jews and Arabs live in peace in the US and Australia in that manner.

To shift governance of the Palestinian Bantustans to the Kingdom of Jordan may well deliver “immense dividends” to the racist settler state and pause the Arab-Israel conflict until the next Zionist grab to pursue its goal of Eretz Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates. There are no dividends in this expansionist dream, or the Jordan phase plumped for by Mr Singer, for the 5 million exiles whose land has been stolen.

A better solution, one which would bring a measure of justice to the exiles and rid the world of the incessant threatening demands of the ethnic state to go to war for it, would be based on RETURN:

• Open the borders of Palestine to return of the exiles to their homeland
• Compel settlers not born in the territory to return to THEIR homelands*
• Develop Palestine (from the sea to the Jordan River and north to the border of Lebanon) as a secular democratic state with equal rights for all inhabitants

*Dispensation could even be negotiated to allow foreign settlers who have never personally used force against the Palestinians to remain as unarmed guests.

One of the things I most enjoy about this disingenuous article is thinking about how quickly the Israeli government will go into comma-splitting mode to determine just how much land will be included in the west bank.
Bugger all is my guess.
With no room left for any configuration of a separate Palestine, substituting Jordan, a bogus construct of a state if ever there was one, is more dancing with smoke.
One nation from the river to the sea is the only long-term viable option. And Israel is so on the wrong side of history. Whatever will they do when America tanks?
My suggestion is to fess up. As the world forgave Germany, so too will it one day forgive Israel. But first some serious truth and reconciliation needs going through.
Granting full right-of-return might be a real good place to start.

Amen.

Blessings on Prince Hassan's head and his father King Abdullah, may he prosper and may his reign last forever.

In Judaism, a father is considered responsible for the sins of his small children, so when a Jewish boy turns 13 and has his Bar-Mitzvah, his father attends to the Torah scroll and blesses God: "Blessed be He who acquitted me from this guy's [referring to his son] punishment".

So now it seems from this report (and kisses to David Singer if it's true), that Jordan has finally reached maturity and is willing to shoulder the burden of the West Bank - congratulations!

Naturally the Palestinian problem is not going to disappear, but now it will be transferred to Jordan and Israel will no longer be involved... on one condition: The West-Bank must be returned to Jordan complete, in full, no if's and but's, all to the last square centimeter, millimeter in fact, the whole cursed land including Eastern Jerusalem.

This will prove the beginning of the road to healing Israel from the corruption that befell it in 1967 when it bit the poisoned fruit of occupation.
(Sinai and the Gaza strip were already returned and as soon as security allows, the Golan Heights should be returned as well, to Syria)

OTOH, poor Jordanians - what have THEY done to deserve having that cursed territory?

The right of return is a vexed question, but one that can be resolved. In my conversations with a number of leading West Bank Palestinians, including those in government, I was told that a 'symbolic' right of return, involving perhaps a few thousand, plus fair compensation for the rest, would be acceptable. As one pointed out, most of the original inhabitants of these lands are dead and there descendants have made their homes elsewhere. Thus it has become a symbolic issue, rather than a humanitarian one. However, I accept that right of return is just one of a number of stumbling blocks on the road to a true and lasting peace in the Middle East.

To davidf

Problem with your missive is that in 1950 there was no talk of a Palestinian people with a separate identity.

The 1947 UN partition plan only spoke of the creation of a Jewish State and an Arab state.

True that twenty percent of Israel's population is Arab - and it appears they want to remain in the Jewish state.

However to expect the West Bank and Gazan Arabs to become citizens of Israel with their in bred hatred of Jews spawned by the PLO and Hamas is a pure pipe dream.

Far better that the areas they inhabit be once again incorporated within Jordan and their citizenship rights are restored as existed between 1950-1988.