The Solution to the Palestinian Problem has been staring us in the face.

Jordan!


Yes the solution to the whole Palestinian refugee problem is Jordan. So it is being talked about now by an advisor to John McCain.

Jordan is in an uproar over the revival of the "Jordanian option" - the thesis that Jordan is the true home to the "Palestinians." Reports that a top advisor to US Presidential candidate John McCain is promoting this idea have led to a flurry of press reports in the Arab media, as well as a denial from Jordan's King Abdullah himself.

The King responded defensively to the option, declaring in an interview with a Lebanese newspaper last week, “This country was made to stay. Jordan is Jordan and Palestine is Palestine."

His majesty is not exactly true. Yes Jordan is a separate nation from the West Bank (it once occupied the West Bank) and Gaza, but history will show that there was never a nation of Jordan until 1922.

For those of you who have forgotten your 20th Century history, this is what happened.

The Formation of Jordan

The League of Nations (predecessor to the UN) granted to Great Britain the land known as Palestine (Israel) to run as a protectorate in 1917. Before that time, the Ottoman Empire ruled the area. But with the defeat of the Ottomans, their empire was up for grabs by the victorious Allies. France claimed the area that would become Syria and Lebanon. England got Palestine, and what would become Iraq and Kuwait.

In 1922 Great Britain created Jordan out of 2/3 of the Palestinian Mandate as a reward to Abdullah I of Jordan for his support to Great Britain in World War I. There was no historical reason for this gift and there has never been a nation called Jordan before. But at the time, if a Great Power wanted to do something. It did.

So now there was a new nation and it was populated with what one day would be called Palestinians.


Now we come to the crux of the matter. Why can't the Palestinian people just become part of Jordan?

"The Palestinian nation has the right to a state and independent identity on the areas of Palestine," said King Abdullah II. "The Palestinians will not accept any substitute for their homeland Palestine."

Though Arabs today call Israel "Palestine," MK Benny Elon (National Union) told IsraelNationalNews that in this case, "the words 'Palestinian homeland' can mean Jordan as well... Certainly Abdullah himself remembers that the original Palestine includes Jordan - but perhaps he assumes that everyone else does not."

Actually he has a good reason not to want these terrorists into his nation. He wouldn't be king of Jordan for very long. Another bit of history explains this.

Black September

At one time Jordan actually did let in Palestinian refugees. After the 1948 war many Palestinians fled to Jordan and started new lives. But after the 6-Day War of June 1967, thousands of Palestinians fled to Jordan. King Hussein gave many of them refuge and tried to absorb them into his nation. But these Palestinians began to bite the hand that fed them. By September 1970 they demanded total control of the Jordanian government and eventually they attempted to seize control of Jordan and assassinate King Hussein and his family. Needless to say that King Hussein was fed up with these malcontents and kicked them out of his nation. One of these was dear Yassir Arafat who denied any involvement but was one of the instigators of the attempted coup.

I can understand why King Abdullah II wouldn't want any of the new batch of malcontents in his land now.

The idea has been making waves in Jordanian and other Arab media as well. The English-language The National, published in Abu Dhabi, reported this week that the news that a top advisor to John McCain had raised the idea - even though the advisor, Robert Kagan, later denied having done so - has "brought to the forefront hidden anxieties in a country that hosts the largest Palestinian refugee population." The paper reports that 1.9 million refugees and their descendants currently live in Jordan - nearly a third of the country's population. Some reports state that the refugees comprise half of Jordan's populace.

“There is a conspiracy to revisit this option ['Jordan is Palestine'],” The National quotes Mohammad Abu Hdeib, who heads the Jordanian parliament’s Arab and international affairs committee, as saying. “Such a scenario would be an end to the Jordanian state. It also contradicts international resolutions that call for an independent Palestinian state.”

It is a shame that we cannot get Jordan to accept all the refugees. It would be a perfect solution to a problem that actually was created by Great Britain when they created Jordan.

For years, Elon has been promoting a peace plan called The Right Road to Peace, or the Israel Initiative, as an alternative to the accepted Roadmap two-state solution. "The establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza (the West Bank) will only prolong the Arab-Israeli conflict and exact a heavy toll in human life," Elon explains.

His plan's website elaborates on this point, explaining that forming such a state will not solve the "real problems that perpetuate the conflict: The Palestinian demand for the right of return of refugees to areas within the State of Israel, the rehabilitation of the refugees, the status of Jerusalem, and the nature of the Palestinian state and its borders. Within a short time, these unresolved problems will resurface and draw the region into yet another war."

Elon told Arutz-7 that the plan to give the Arabs of Judea and Samaria citizenship in Jordan is the "only way to re-route diplomatic talk away from the dangerous Roadmap."

It could work, I'm sure money could be found to help settle the new refugees. The Palestinian people would have a nation of their own with a strong government and king. There is already a peace treaty with Israel in place. And this would solve the whole Palestinian refugee problem with a place they could call home. Now all we have to do is convince them the beauty of the solution.