With Israel's continued talk of the ‘alternative country' plan, or the ‘so-called Jordanian option', both Jordanian and Palestinian officials voice strong opposition to the Israeli designs which would lead to the expulsion of Palestinians to the east of the River Jordan, thus demolishing hopes for a two-state solution to the Palestinian question. Israel is reinforcing such an argument with facts on the ground including construction of the Apartheid Wall, building or expanding colonies, and leading the peace process to a dead end which if unblocked would lead to no political settlement.
Jordanian high-ranking officials have reiterated strong opposition to the Israeli plan, but ironically, Israeli statements stick to a notion that Jordan is part of the ‘historical land of Israel' and that picking the country as an ‘alternative homeland' for the Palestinians is an important ‘compromise' that Tel Aviv is ready to make.
Israeli Knesset member Arieh Eldad has been the most outspoken figure on such an illogical, outrageous assumption. It is to be remembered that an ‘alternative country/ homeland' for the Palestinians is an old Zionist scheme that first surfaced in the mid-19th century. The fulfilment of such a colonial project is the confiscation of Palestinian land, the steady ‘transfer' (i.e. expulsion) of Palestinians from their homes which took place in waves since 1948 and the expansion of colonies to complete the final phase of the Judaisation of all historical Arab Palestine where there will be no presence of Palestinians, especially in occupied Jerusalem. The main Israeli political parties are now focusing on the Eastern Bank of the River Jordan, as an ‘Israeli land', in their view, which they are ready ‘to give up' for the Palestinians to establish a homeland! This project of ‘transferring' Palestinians to Jordan is bound to turn the old Zionist slogan into a fact; "A land without people [Palestine] for people without land [Jews]". While conscientious Jews were working day and night to bring down the white apartheid system of South Africa, Israel was the closest ally of that apartheid system, sharing with it the Israeli atomic knowledge which was assisting the apartheid system to possess nuclear weapons.
West's blind support
As the Jordanians strongly oppose the idea of an ‘alternative homeland', the Palestinians oppose it more arduously since it will destroy forever their hopes for an independent state, and by making Jordan the alternative country for them means keeping the cancerous Zionist entity well and prosperous, yet it will eventually kill itself and all who were infected near it. Should the cancerous Zionist apartheid policy keep spreading, the whole Middle East is destined to meet utter destruction. Indeed, the Judaisation of occupied Jerusalem has reached a point of no return and the issue of a purely Jewish occupied Jerusalem is making more than a billion and a half Muslims inch closer toward a conflict over the holy city. This is bound to cause catastrophes in the West because of its blind support for Israel in addition to a paralysis by not willing or being unable to stop Israeli colonial policies which contravene international law.
The Israeli agenda for the ‘Jordanian Option' which may give Palestinians an ‘alternative country' needs some local help to be fulfilled! Instead of facing such an evil agenda with a strong Palestinian stand, an ‘ailing authority" which could easily be obliterated by the Zionist entity has been created, thus pushing the maliciously planned transfer of Palestinians from being a future possibility towards becoming a reality. In the West Bank, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) has no real authority, whatsoever, on a single inch of land which is being filled with Israeli colonies. Sixty per cent of the West Bank is now under direct Israeli occupation whose colonists now decide Israeli policies. Twenty eight billion dollars(Dh103 billion) have been invested in these colonies with a yearly maintenance cost of $660 million. Moreover, on the other side of our ‘ailing country', stands ‘the state of Gaza' which is now facing ‘the state of Ramallah'! Gaza has turned into a land of daily killing and destruction, an isolated prison where Palestinians are being shot at by the Israeli Defence Force as ‘a hunter shooting fish in a barrel of water' where he could not miss even if he tried. But the recent development which culminated in an agreement between Fatah and Hamas (endorsed also by the rest of the Palestinian organisations) marks a beginning of a long march to establish real Palestinian unity whose main purpose is the protection of the national Palestinian interest and security.
A Palestinian state can only be established on one national interest and security that encompasses all the people without favouring one section over another. Palestinians and Jordanians share the same interest in security and stability. The only real problem facing the Zionist entity, is the fact that people (Palestinians) still live on their land in Palestine and a government with established institutions exist in Jordan. A strong and a stable Jordan is good for Palestinians and Jordanians and this unity of purpose should be the means to resist such an agenda.
Professor As'ad Abdul Rahman is the Chairman of the Palestinian Encyclopaedia.
