Israel, Jordan, PLO pave way for Hashemite kingdom of Palestine

Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s meeting with King Abdullah on 27 July could see negotiations being announced shortly between Israel and Jordan to create a single territorial entity encompassing Jordan, Gaza and parts of the West Bank.

This newly created entity -designated The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine –together with Israel – will constitute the elusive and previously unattainable two-state solution – pursued by:

• the Mandate for Palestine (1922)
• the Peel Commission (1937)
• UN Resolution 181 (III) (1947)
• Venice Declaration (1980)
• Oslo Accords (1993)
• Saudi Peace Plan (1982)
• Revised Saudi Peace Plan (2002)
• Bush Roadmap (2002)
• Trump Peace Plan (2020)

finally ending the conflict over the division of former Palestine between Arabs and Jews begun with the defeat of Turkey in World War 1.

The plan to create The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine was first announced in Al-Arabiya news –owned by the Saudi Royal family –on 8 June in an article written by Ali Shihabi – a close confidante of Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman – Saudi Arabia’s heir apparent to the Saudi throne and the driving force behind Neom – a $500 billion megacity of the future to be built from the ground up in an area of northern Saudi Arabia equal to the size of Israel.

A tweet issued by King Abdullah’s Palace (see below) confirms that the King and Lapid discussed the subject of a two-state solution and it seems inconceivable that they would have discussed any plan other than this Saudi solution.

It would appear that back channel negotiations have been going on since the release of the Saudi plan on 8 June to refine it to reflect - with more precision - the starting positions of Jordan, Israel and the PLO in any negotiations.

Those agreed starting positions include:

1.      The Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine will be ruled by Jordan’s current Hashemite ruler King Abdullah – which Hashemite dynasty has ruled Jordan for the last 100 years.