Jordan - 70% of whose population comprises Palestinian Arabs or their descendants formerly living in Palestine west of the Jordan River - is eminently qualified to enter into direct negotiations with Israel to recover territory lost by it in the West Bank to Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.
Successful negotiations would enable Jordan to:
- close the 29 refugee camps in Jordan and the West Bank currently housing 570000 "refugees"
- fully rehabilitate and integrate all 2,985,000 "refugees" within the general Arab populations residing in the West Bank and Jordan
- extend Jordanian citizenship to all West Bank Arab residents
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Trump's promise of direct American bilateral assistance to Jordan would facilitate this outcome.
In one fell swoop – Trump has:
- Squeezed UNRWA into making refugee-relief choices that could affect the political futures of the PLO, Hamas and Jordan
- Checkmated the PLO's claim to continue to be the sole spokesman for the Palestinian Arabs because it lacks absolute authority to influence how UNRWA reduces current funding to the Palestinian Arab "refugees" living in Gaza and Jordan
- Incentivised Jordan to fill the diplomatic void left by the PLO by agreeing to begin negotiations with Israel on Trump's peace plan without any preconditions
Bucking – not backing - Trump is a sure-fire recipe for committing political suicide.
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About the Author
David Singer is an Australian Lawyer, a Foundation Member of the International Analyst Network and Convenor of Jordan is Palestine International - an organisation calling for sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza to be allocated between Israel and Jordan as the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine. Previous articles written by him can be found at www.jordanispalestine.blogspot.com.
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