JORDANIAN-PALESTINIAN CONFEDERATION AIRED BY
NETANYAHU, ABDULLAH
Via DEBKAfile
ISRAEL, JORDAN AND PALESTINE
Aspects of a possible confederation
between a Palestinian West Bank state and the Hashemite Kingdom – not SYRIA -
were the subject of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s recent conversation
with JORDAN’S King Abdullah in Amman, debkafile’s sources reveal. Nothing was
decided and the two leaders agreed to hold further discussions in due course.
This idea has become a focal talking
point in Amman, Washington and PALESTINIAN centers.
Netanyahu brought some pointed questions to the highly confidential one-on-one at the Hashemite palace: He asked the king how much responsibility would Jordan undertake in controlling West Bank security and intelligence activity? What were his plans for extending such control from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip? And how would JORDAN’S intentions fit into the security arrangements demanded by ISRAEL in both territories as part of any accord with the PALESTINIANS?
Netanyahu brought some pointed questions to the highly confidential one-on-one at the Hashemite palace: He asked the king how much responsibility would Jordan undertake in controlling West Bank security and intelligence activity? What were his plans for extending such control from the West Bank to the Gaza Strip? And how would JORDAN’S intentions fit into the security arrangements demanded by ISRAEL in both territories as part of any accord with the PALESTINIANS?
According to US and JORDANIAN
sources au fait with these ideas, the current goal for the next stage of
ISRAELI – PALESTINIAN negotiations in the coming months would be a long-term
interim accord. It would leave the core disputes on permanent borders,
Jerusalem, the PALESTINIAN refugees and the future of ISRAEL’S settlements in
Judea and Samaria to a later round of negotiations at some unspecified time in
the future.
PALESTINIAN-JORDANIAN CONFEDERATION WOULD SIDESTEP THE
DIFFICULTIES OF RECIPROCAL RECOGNITION - A PALESTINIAN STATE BY ISRAEL AND
ISRAEL BY THE PALESTINIANS
The establishment of a PALESTINIAN-JORDANIAN
confederation would sidestep the difficulties of reciprocal recognition - a PALESTINIAN
state by ISRAEL and ISRAEL by the PALESTINIANS as the national state of the
Jewish people. JORDAN has recognized ISRAEL and the two nations maintain full
diplomatic relations. The confederation’s ruling body as such would be able to
recognize ISRAEL without requiring a public PALESTINIAN declaration of
acceptance. Equally, ISRAEL would be saved from having to formally accept PALESTINIAN
statehood and could simply greet the new joint entity and extend an assurance
of cooperation that in practice would be implemented through JORDAN or any
Muslim Arab element taking part in the move.
Background Information:
TELLING THE UN SIX HOME TRUTHS
LICENSE TO STATEHOOD
RESOLVING THE ARAB - JEWISH CONFLICT
TURKEY RESUMES NATO
TIES WITH ISRAEL
In December 2012, the PALESTINIAN
Authority’s Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) secretly advised certain PALESTINIAN
leaders “to be prepared for a new confederation project with JORDAN and other
parties in the international community.”
He did not name those parties. debkafile’s sources reveal that he was referring to EGYPT, TURKEY and QATAR – in other words, the members of the pro-AMERICAN Sunni-led bloc AMERICAN diplomats established in Cairo last month in the course of ISRAEL’S Pillar of Defense operation in Gaza and the negotiations that led to an ISRAEL-Hamas ceasefire.
SUNNI CRESCENT - SAUDI ARABIA AND GULF NATIONS WILLING TO
GRANT SECURITY GUARANTEES FOR PALESTINIAN JORDANIAN CONFEDERATION PROJECT
AMERICAN sources said at the time
that Washington was not averse to additional Gulf nations including SAUDI
ARABIA adding their weight to the initiative for a JORDANIAN-PALESTINIAN confederation
and was willing, if it took off, to consider granting the endeavor security
guarantees and economic assistance.
Asked why the project had not
figured in ISRAELI political discourse, those sources accused the ISRAELI media
of generating an election campaign climate that hostilely depicted Netanyahu
and his party as extreme right-wing nationalists who consistently refused to talk
peace with the PALESTINIANS. Showing the prime minister as quietly
preparing to return to the peace track after forming his next government,
assuming he wins the Jan. 22 poll, would spoil their show. Netanyahu himself
prefers to stay aloof from his accusers.
According to Arab sources involved
in the new initiative, it gained traction from the UN General Assembly’s Nov.
29 upgrade of the PALESTINIANS to non-member observer status. On the strength
of this upgrade, the PALESTINIAN Authority is claiming the status of a
government representing an independent state and therefore eligible to join JORDAN
as a confederation partner.
Such a setup may have room for Hamas
which too would be saved from having to recognize the state of ISRAEL.
CRISIS AND CONFLICT RESOLUTIONS - MIDDLE EASTER STYLE
For the first time in their
decade-long rocket offensive against their ISRAELI neighbors, the Gaza
Strip's Hamas rulers are scrupulously upholding the ceasefire deal they struck
with ISRAEL. The Netanyahu government has reciprocated by substantially
easing restrictions on the territory. And now, after six years, ISRAEL will allow
building materials to cross through into the territory, including cement and
gravel, withheld until now lest they were used to build smuggling tunnels for
supplying terrorist organizations with war materiel. Public transport,
including buses and trucks, will also soon be running through the crossings.
HAMAS MAY FIND THE CONFEDERATION PROJECT WITH JORDAN
ATTRACTIVE
Netanyahu appears to have decided
that the chances of another outbreak of hostile operations from the Gaza
Strip have receded. Indeed, there is a good chance that Hamas
may find the confederation project the West Bank’s Fatah rulers are about
to pursue with JORDAN attractive, and let itself be led to join by EGYPT and QATAR.
There are more straws in the wind
attesting to the confederation project being on the move. The US-based PALESTINIAN
professor and journalist, Daoud Kuttab, writing in The Atlantic,
reported that King Abdullah’s closest advisers include partisans of the
confederation notion – i.e. JORDAN’S restoration to its pre-1967 rule of the
West Bank.
Kuttab goes back in history to quote
the late Salah Khalaf (Abu Iyad), the terrorist leader ISRAEL eliminated in
Tunis in January, 1991, as saying: “What the PALESTINIANS wanted was five
minute of independence and then they would happily agree to a confederation
with JORDAN. “
TURKEY DEEPLY COMMITTED TO ADVOCATE A PALESTINIAN JORDANIAN
CONFEDERATION
Interestingly, this phrase is
increasingly cited by Arab and Western media.
Furthermore, US and Arab sources disclose that TURKISH Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has deeply committed himself to the step. They say this commitment was partly manifested by his consent to drop TURKEYS boycott on cooperation with ISRAEL in the framework of NATO and that more evidence of revived US-TURKISH-ISRAELI cooperation is still to come.
Furthermore, US and Arab sources disclose that TURKISH Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan has deeply committed himself to the step. They say this commitment was partly manifested by his consent to drop TURKEYS boycott on cooperation with ISRAEL in the framework of NATO and that more evidence of revived US-TURKISH-ISRAELI cooperation is still to come.
debkafile reported exclusively that ISRAEL
and the PALESTINIANS had agreed to resume peace negotiations in March, as soon
as Netanyahu, who is generally expected to win the January election, has
assembled his new government.
The Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem made haste to deny reports that he planned to invite opposition leader and former foreign minister Tzipi Livni to join the next cabinet in her old job as lead negotiator in talks with the PALESTINIANS. According to our sources, Netanyahu has reserved that role for himself.
The Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem made haste to deny reports that he planned to invite opposition leader and former foreign minister Tzipi Livni to join the next cabinet in her old job as lead negotiator in talks with the PALESTINIANS. According to our sources, Netanyahu has reserved that role for himself.
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