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The Forum > Article Comments > Palestine: realities overtaking fairy tales > Comments

Palestine: realities overtaking fairy tales : Comments

By David Singer, published 14/11/2012

The attempt to create two separate national identities and two separate peoples - Jordanians and Palestinians - have always been nothing but misleading and deceptive fairy tales.

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Dear David,

The proposal that Jordan absorb the West Bank is unrealistic for several reasons.

1. Jordan has had a confrontation with the Palestinians in the past & would not want more of them.

2. Israel does not want to absorb the Palestinians by giving them the right of return because Israel would cease to exist. The same is true for Jordan. It would be a matter of time before the Jordanian government would be overthrown if Jordan absorbed the West Bank. The new government would be probably more hostile to Israel than the current government.

3. It is in the interests of neither Jordan nor Israel for Jordan to absorb the West Bank.

4. The Palestinians were not consulted previously when the Balfour Declaration was put forth. Your solution is another one that would be made without consulting the people who would be affected.

You probably will generate another article iterating the same nonsense.
Posted by david f, Friday, 16 November 2012 8:22:31 AM
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#To JohnBennetts

You state that reunification of the West Bank with Jordan "clearly won't work" but give no reasons why.

It worked for 17 years from 1950-1967. Why wouldn't it work again?

Why would Prince Hassan and Farouk Kaddoumi be making their statements at this particular time if they believed it would not work?

# To Emperor Julian

Prince Hassan of Jordan and senior PLO official Farouk Kaddoumi are certainly not "a drumbeat from racist Israel through its spokesmen" as you disingenuously allege. Their call to reunify the West Bank with Jordan cannot be so arbitrarily dismissed. They are part of a growing Arab opinion that direct negotiations between Israel and Jordan are required to determine the future of the West Bank.

#To david f

You might think the proposal to reunify the West Bank with Jordan is "unrealistic".

Prince Hassan, Farouk Kaddoumi and the Arab sources and documents quoted in my article clearly don!t agree with you.

Neither does history - which saw the Arab population of the West Bank agree to unify that territory with Transjordan in 1950 and rename the new entity "Jordan" and to become part of a Parliament that had 30 representatives from the West Bank and 30 representatives from the East Bank.
Posted by david singer, Friday, 16 November 2012 2:40:31 PM
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Dear David,

Try as you may you cannot go back to 1950. The Palestinians have developed a separate identity since then.

If England would repeal the Stamp Act which was a precipitating cause for the American Revolution the US would not become a British colony again.

Trying to make the West Bank part of Jordan even though it was occupied by Jordan in the past is equally unrealistic. Repetition of nonsense does not produce sense.
Posted by david f, Friday, 16 November 2012 4:14:59 PM
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Dear David F.,

<<Trying to make the West Bank part of Jordan even though it was occupied by Jordan in the past is equally unrealistic>>

This is true, but the outcome of Israel returning the West Bank to Jordan is not necessarily the West Bank becoming part of Jordan - it is only the first step!

In other scenarios, the next step could be, for example:

1) The day after the ceremonial return of the West Bank to Jordan, King Abdullah grants the Palestinians there independence.

2) The day after the ceremonial return of the West Bank to Jordan, King Abdullah sends his troops to massacre the Palestinians to the last (the world wouldn't complain, because it would then not be Israel but an internal Arab matter).

3) The day after the ceremonial return of the West Bank to Jordan, the Palestinians there rebel and join the opposition Syrian forces to become part of Syria.

4) The day after the ceremonial return of the West Bank to Jordan, all Palestinians will rush to the Rabbis to become Jewish and immigrate to Israel because they would realize that despite everything, life there is better.

And I am sure you can find yourself many more scenarios - let's just start then with the first step!
Posted by Yuyutsu, Friday, 16 November 2012 5:54:12 PM
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Dear Yuyutsu,

Is your first step making the West Bank part of Jordan? Since both Jordan and most Palestinians oppose that how does one take the first step?
Posted by david f, Friday, 16 November 2012 6:25:46 PM
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Dear David F.,

<<Is your first step making the West Bank part of Jordan? Since both Jordan and most Palestinians oppose that how does one take the first step?>>

We must remember the context - this is a David Singer article, and he wrote that Jordan is willing to take back the West Bank (after many years that it washed its hands and refused to take it back). For me it's like the heavens opening up and choirs of angels streaming down: if you dispute that fact, go argue with David Singer, not with me!

In that case, all that is needed is an agreement between Israel and Jordan whereby Israel hands over the West Bank to Jordan, period. The Palestinians may be kicking and screaming, but under this scenario nobody is going to ask them.

Dear David G.

<<Well, the first thing I would do is to stop the occupation of the people who were firing the rockets.>>

To open an open door, one must first close it.

It now seems that your wish will soon be granted and Israel will, in a few weeks, withdraw from Gaza yet again.

<<Then I would give the occupied people their land back, the land which I had stolen, and allow them to form their own sovereign nation.>>

Are you then going to stay on that land, or leave it and go back to England?

<<Then I would pay them massive reparation for the decades of horror and genocide and war crimes which my nation had inflicted upon them.>>

So what if they say: "We don't want your money, we don't want your apologies, we only want you out of here and until you leave back to England we'll keep bombing Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, Hobart, etc!"?
Posted by Yuyutsu, Saturday, 17 November 2012 9:15:43 PM
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