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Back to the Jordanian Option: Why a Final-Status Agreement with Palestinians Is Unfeasible

[Ynet News] Maj.-Gen. (res.) Giora Eiland - The most an Israeli government can offer to the Palestinians and still survive politically is much less than the minimum that any Palestinian government can accept and survive politically. The gap between the sides is large and is growing with the passage of time, rather than the other way around. The absence of Palestinian desire (to get a small and split state and view it as the end of the conflict) is the bothersome aspect. There is no chance that the small, split, and resource-poor Palestinian state will constitute the homeland of satisfied people. So what should we do? We should reshuffle the cards and try to think about other solutions as well. One of them is a return to the Jordanian option. The Jordanians won't admit this publicly, yet a Palestinian state in the West Bank is the worst solution for them. They too know that within a short period of time such a state would be ruled by Hamas. The moment Jordan - which features a Palestinian majority as well as powerful Muslim Brotherhood opposition - will share a border with a Hamas state, the Hashemite regime will face immediate danger. The writer is former head of Israel's National Security Council, and has served as Head of the IDF's Operations Directorate and its Planning and Policy Directorate.
2008-04-18 01:00:00
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