As the idea of creating a separate state in the West Bank between Jordan and Israel - the “two-state solution” - disappears down the drain in the face of continuing Palestinian Authority intransigence to change its negotiating stance over the last 16 years - the re-entry of Jordan into the West Bank to be granted sovereignty in such of the area as shall be agreed between Jordan and Israel becomes increasingly more attractive.
The Hashemites - not the PLO or Hamas - have been responsible for securing that 78 per cent of Palestine - today called Jordan - has remained exclusively as an Arab homeland for the Arab residents of former Palestine after it had been first included in the area destined for the reconstitution of the Jewish National Home.
An opportunity is now opening for Jordan to regain a substantial part of the West Bank and once again reunify it with Jordan after an absence of 43 years.
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Abdullah could reclaim a substantial part of what historically was part of Jordan for 19 years and offer to some 2.5 million Arabs now living there statehood rather than statelessness.
The West Bank is not - and never has been - a viable entity. Its reunification with Jordan will restore the political reality for its citizens that existed between 1950-1988 and its territorial status prior to its loss to Israel in 1967.
Such a solution may not end the Arab-Israeli war nor give the West Bank Arabs their own separate state, but it will be an effective end to the Israeli occupation of the majority of the West Bank and the statelessness of its Arab residents.
Hopefully this time round Jordan would also receive United Nations backing and Arab League blessing - as no other negotiated solution is remotely possible.
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