A new/old idea for Palestinian peace

Jordan is quietly discussing closer ties – even some form of official union – with the Palestinian West Bank.

By Ilene R. Prusher | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the May 31, 2007 edition

Page 1 of 2

RAMALLAH, WEST BANK - It was almost 40 years ago that this city, like the rest of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, fell out of Jordanian hands and into Israeli control in the course of the Six-Day War.

Call it retro geopolitics, or history repeating itself, but the idea of the Palestinian territories – at least the West Bank – rejoining the Hashemite Kingdom to form some kind of confederation seems to be gaining traction on both sides of the Jordan River.

The concept has been raised quietly before but was deemed taboo, in part because Palestinian leaders feared it could squelch their larger aspirations for an independent state.

But given the deteriorating security in the Palestinian territories amid an ongoing power struggle between Fatah and Hamas, some Palestinians are again looking east to Jordan – a country whose majority population is of Palestinian descent. Jordan's King Abdullah II – concerned about a full collapse of the Palestinian Authority as well as unilateral Israeli moves in the West Bank – is increasingly involved in bringing opinion-shapers and would-be peacemakers together to reconsider the idea.

When the king invited some 200 Palestinians, Israelis, and Jordanians to Aqaba earlier this month, the confederation idea was part a big part of the buzz, says Samih Shabib, a lecturer in political science at Bir Zeit University here.

"The official Jordanian position is that no Jordanian-Palestinian confederation will be established before there is an independent Palestinian state, but we all know there's more to it than that," says Dr. Shabib. "There seems to be an exceptional interest on the part of the king in internal Palestinian matters, and this has manifested itself in a huge effort in the last few months of bringing us together, and there are many meetings on this that are continuing."

Ten years ago, a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation as a part of the solution to the Israeli-Arab conflict was unacceptable. So Shabib was pleasantly surprised when he called the Palestinian Authority offices here about the Aqaba invitation to discuss peace plans for the region and found receptivity to the attendance of some 70 prominent Palestinian professors, business leaders, and members of the legislative council. Such openness to the issue, Shabib says, would never have occurred when Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was alive.

"Palestinians are living through such a crisis that they have more confidence in the Jordanian regime than they have in the Palestinian Authority," he says. "We've been observing the progress on the Jordanian side, in economics, in international relations, in tourism, and therefore any Jordanian move to come closer to the Palestinians will find a positive response."

Page 1 | 2 | Next Page