The Palestinian Prime Minister Salaam Fayyad resigned last Saturday, leaving the Palestinians without their first leader who has succeed in creating the order … fiscal and security … needed to form a real state. This makes it difficult to imagine a real peace option for Israel.
At the same time the Syrian civil war leaves Israel as the strong man in a sea of dysfunctional enemies … none of whom are well enough organized to threaten the Jewish state. There is, however, one Arab country that could help Israel and suport peace in Syria .. that is Jordan.
Joseph Hoar in Foreign Policy writes about the critical role Jordan is playing in dealing with ” the enormous amounts of refugees in countries that are ill equipped to handle them. Lebanon and Turkey have absorbed more than 750,000 refugees, but no place has felt the brunt of Syria’s huge population displacement as much as Jordan. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, nearly 450,000 Syrians are now registered as refugees residing in Jordan. Unofficially, the numbers are far higher. In rough terms, the refugees in Jordan now comprise approximately 10 percent of the total population.”
This is not new. Jordan was once the “real Palestine” … that is the home for the people we now call Palestinians. King Abdullah’s grandfather, rule of what was then Transjordan, crossed the holy river and annexed the West Bank in 48. His war was not a war of invasion, it was an effort at unification. Only later, as the Palestinian National identity was forged by Nasser and Arafat, Jordan’s refugees became the refugees from Palestine seen as a separate nation.
If Palestine is ever to be an independent state , it needs a realistic economic base .. something that is not possible without the likes of Fayyyad, a good administrator, and enough land and resources to build an economy. Te stump of land along the West Bank is inadequate to support a national economy. Palestine needs a partner. Israel, obviously can not partner with Palestine .. that is at best the failed concept of colonialism. Jordan, an Arab country with a working government, a semblance of democracy, and enough space to function as an economy could be a real partner in the effort to create such a state.
Driven by the crisis of Syrian refugees, President Barack Obama has pledged an additional $200 million to aid the already challenged Jordanian economy. That is too little. The US can not solve this on its own. The best way to stabilize Syria is to assure that Jordan has the investment it needs to grow its own economy .. investments that will be good for Palestine as well. King Abdullah’s regime has been a unique contributor to regional peace and security. This fact should drive Israel’s supporters as well as the wealthy Arab nations with the resources to help Jordan develop.
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