By Ted Belman (Mar 1919)
The Jordan Option, as articulated by me and Mudar Zahran, the Secretary General of the Jordan Opposition Coalition, anticipates that King Abdullah will abdicate, willingly or otherwise, and that Mudar Zahran will take over Jordan as its leader.
Dr Mudar Zahran is very open as to what his intentions are once in power.
- He wants to cooperate with Israel rather than confront Israel
- Jordan will uphold its own Citizenship Act of 1952 which grants everyone who has lived in Palestine while under the Hashemite rule, and their descendants, an automatic citizenship
- Jordan will allow all Palestinians, living elsewhere, to emigrate to Jordan.
- Jordan will replace UNRWA as the provider of services to all Palestinian refugees of which 2 million live west of the Jordan River
- Jordan will invite the said two million refugees to emigrate to Jordan to receive the said services which include social security, healthcare and education.
- Jordan will build a new city to house 1 million emigrants. It will be built by the emigrants. All emigrants will receive a new house free of charge. The estimated cost of each house if $30,000.
- The Peace Treaty between Jordan and Israel will be reaffirmed as will the Jordan River be reaffirmed as the international boundary.
- The Palestinian textbooks will be rewritten by a joint task force to reflect in the main the Jewish narrative with appropriate nods to the Arab perspective. These new text books will be studied by all Palestinians in Jordan or Israel.
- Jordan will join the Abraham Accords.
This new reality will affect Israel in the following way;
- The Palestinians living west of the River will no longer be stateless. They will be Jordanian citizens living in Israel as foreign residents.
- Thus, Israel will be able to extend its sovereignty over the entire area without the need to grant citizenship to the Palestinians living west of the River. The reason this is so is because when you annex land or claim sovereignty over land, there is no law which obligates you to grant citizenship to citizens of foreign countries who may live there.
- Israel will extradite all Palestinian prisoners to Jordan and Jordan will accept them.
- These Jordanian/Palestinians will be entitled to live in Area A and B as delineated by the Oslo Accords, as foreign residents with full autonomy just as they do now.
- Over the next few years Jordan will replace the PA as the administrator of these areas and the PA will wither away.
- All Palestinians will be incentivized to emigrate to Jordan with funds provided by Israel, the Gulf States and the US as announced in the Bahrain Workshop
- The Oslo Accords will be subsumed in the Jordan-Israel Peace Treaty.
- Gaza will be designated as another Area A. Hamas will be outlawed and Jordan will administer it.
The notion that both sides had more to gain by cooperating rather than confronting is what gave the Abraham Accords impetus and inspiration and is at the root of the Jordan Option.
Such a notion drove the short-lived Feisal/Weizmann Agreement of 1919. The essence of this agreement was that Palestine as it then was, was to be divided into two states, one for the Arabs and one for the Jews. Chaim Weizmann, on behalf of the Jews, agreed to help develop the Arab state and King Feisal agreed to welcome Jewish settlement in the Jewish state and favored friendly cooperative relations.
The Jordan Option, when implemented, will prove to be the biggest game-changer since the Six Day War.
A perfect solution would be to expel all the Arabs but that is not going to happen. By absorbing B into C we get rid of the swiss cheese effect. I have not been able to discover how many Arabs live in B. What ever the number is they will have Jordanian citizenship and thus will be foreign residents in Israel. I am hoping that as a result they will not be offered Israeli citizenship. Their fate will be determined by whether Israel incentivizes them to stay or to emigrate.
Children born in Israel only get Israeli citizenship if one of their parents has Israeli citizenship. Therefore Israel should revoke the Israeli citizenship of any Arab Israeli who marries a citizens of Jordan.
As for the fate of the Arab’s in A, over time A will be seen as Jordanian outposts ruled by Jordan. That we can live with.
@Jonathan
@Sebastien
The Pals can rule themselves in Area A. As I see things, it is best for them and best for us that the two communities be as isolated from each other as possible. Hence, Area A, run by a credible, responsible and capable agent, none of which Fatah ever was, is in Israel’s interest, IMO. As to the existence of Area A being a source for trouble between the Pals and the Jews, well, the trouble extends from the Pals being present in Israel. That reality won’t change unless you can offer the Pals both a reason and a method which to emigrate to some other land, such as Jordan. The Jordan Option is the only plan which even attempts to deal with this issue. Of course, until the JO is implemented, and to the degree to which it is successful in seeing the Pals choose to return to their own side of the Jordan, the Pals will need to remain somewhere in Israel, and better that they remain together in Area A, ruled by a credible, responsible, and capable agent, as noted above.
As to the funds, which are currently being given to the Pals in Area A, being sent to Jordan, Jordan will need those funds to finance the changes in Jordanian society which will incentivize the Pals to cross the river and to settle their in Jordan in harmony. In truth the very foundation of the JO is targeted towards decapitating the violent Jihadi teachings and activities which normalize the violence between the Pals and the Jews and replacing these with something more meaningful around which the Pals can focus, namely living a productive and satisfying life with two borders and a river between them and the Jews. So let the funds flowing into the PA act as a lure to lead the Pals to a better future in Jordan. By doing so it will simultaneously lead to a better future for the Israelis as well.
Just my own thoughts of course.
@Jonathan I agree.
Why would you want any area A’s? That is just asking for trouble. Just two states – Israel and Jordan divided by the Jordan river. The millions of $ now given by Europe, Canada and the U.S. to defeat Israel (they say it is for the Palestinians but that is not true) will be given to Jordan.
@Hoagland
I would suggest that if Jordan could devolve into a state such as has plagued Lebanon, it would have already done so as the people live in quite adverse conditions and have been quite unhappy with the govt that governs over them. The linchpin which has prevented the fate of Lebanon from visiting Jordan is their Army, and this institution will continue in this role once Mudar comes to power.
The PA will have no say in the matter. In fact, the PA only continues to exist due to Israel’s foolish support to maintain this Terrorist state in power without any legitimacy as we are now in the 16th year of Abu Mazen’s election delay. Recall also that he continues to pay the blood money to the butchers of innocent Jews who are still falling prey to yet one more wave of terror supported by the PA’s illegitimate regime.
When Mudar comes to power, I believe the plan will be doable, as it focuses upon changing everything surrounding the Palestinian’s lives, including providing them with a foreign citizenship, and ending once and for all the existence of UNRWA. They will be tasked with relocating to Jordan to seek out their financial stipends which will no longer be available in the territories as the defunct UNWRA will no longer be providing health care, welfare, propaganda sold as education etc. So they will go to Jordan to gain access to these things, and once there they will be supported with an economy where their children will be granted the opportunity to live in a society where they have a hopeful future, free from the war zone in which they are currently living under constant threat of death.
Should they prefer to maintain their fever for a jihadist lifestyle once in Jordan, they will find that not all nations are as polite with those who are intending on conducting terror and murder. Furthermore, to reach the Israelis upon whom they wish to practice their Jihadist tendencies, they will need to cross thru two armed borders as well as the Jordan River, a far more formidable barrier than now exists from Jenin, for example.
For those die hard Jihadis who refuse to leave the territories, they will find the support of the masses to fill their ranks to be far more barren, as the numbers are bused over to Jordan. The thinned ranks will afford a reduce effect and fervor for the Jihadis remaining in the territories, while the calls from friends and families reporting back from Jordan of their improved status and life there, will provide a further impetus to those remaining in the territories to think again about relocating to Jordan. Furthermore, since the Palestinians will have Jordanian citizenship, rather than lending these Jihadis the privileges of Israeli justice, once they violate the laws guiding their presence in the territories, they can be deported back to Jordan where the Jihadis will face a justice system that will lead them to Jihad no more forever. There is more, but I think this argues against the idea that the plan is not doable, as it does not require the Jihadis’ cooperation to not practice Jihad, only that there is a just form of discipline to deal with their Jihadi ways, training others by the example that might be exacted upon those who would attempt to practice their Jihad. Oh, and also, there will be no prize money being paid to the families of the Marters(not martyrs) from Fatah as they will be out of power, out of revenue and out of town, in Tunis or jail or six feet under. Just my own thoughts of course.
@Reader Worse, not a country but a rebellion.
My first thought after reading the proposal was: what is to prevent Jordan from becoming like Lebanon? After a few minutes it was clear that the PA won’t go for it for obvious reasons. But overriding everything is a complete sense of underestimating the extreme element that governs the jihad mentality. I don’t think that this plan is workable because the jihadist is totally close minded to anything other than the perverse litany which worships death and adores murder, rape and mayhem.
Shouldn’t a defense minister leverage his country’s accords with other countries to strengthen HIS country and not his country’s enemy?
Jul 22, 2022
https://www.timesofisrael.com/gantz-we-can-leverage-the-abraham-accords-to-strengthen-the-palestinian-authority/
So now, he’s one-upping Bibi’s Bar-Ilan speech by downgrading the Jewish state to “an entity?”
Entity, Entity, where have I heard that? Oh, I know.
“3. The Liberation Organization will struggle against any proposal for a Palestinian entity the price of which is recognition, peace, secure frontiers, renunciation of national rights, and the deprival of our people of their right to return and their right to self-determination on the soil of their homeland.”
https://yaf.ps/page-1517-en.html
@Reader
The text I cited is the Accord they signed and what you described as a snake in the grass. You are welcome to what concerns concern you, but facts are facts, and the Accord does not suggest any form of Middle Eastern EU preventing Israel from acting as a sovereign state. Also the world has nothing to do with the Abraham Accords, just the parties who signed. Perhaps, you should take the time and read the document to which you are objecting to judge for yourself. Just a suggestion of course.
@peloni
I don’t know what yvonne’s sources are, either, but the text you cited is just a general diplomatic meaningless blah-blah-blah.
The fact is that if the “world community” really wanted peace in the ME, it would have let the Jews have their state including all of the Judea & Samaria, moved the Arabs to Jordan or other Arab countries (over 20 of them) just as there was an exchange of the populations between India and Pakistan (but peaceful unlike in the case of India and Pakistan), and it would have LEFT THE JEWS ALONE to develop their Jewish state with the Diaspora Jews making aliyah to Israel.
BUT, in this case, WHOSE PROPHECIES WOULD BE COMING TRUE?!
It is this that the “world community” cannot abide, and it will do anything in its power to destroy the Jewish state.
Too bad that the Jews are helping the “world community” to accomplish this.
@Reader
I am not sure what yvonne is speaking about. Here is the text of the Abraham Accords which is relevant to the peace between Israel and the Arabs outside the signing parties(the italicized words are included in the published text of the AA):
https://www.jewishpress.com/news/us-news/full-text-of-the-abraham-accords/2020/09/16/
None of this supports yvonne’s statement.
@Ted Belman
I am reading it with a open mind.
What is the difference between this and giving away to Jordan another chunk of Judea & Samaria (in addition to their illegal 78% of the Mandate) AND keeping the 5th column in Israel as citizens of a foreign country which will then have the right to intervene on their behalf when it feels that Israel “doesn’t treat them right”?
BTW, the Abraham Accords is another “snake in the grass” (BTW, I am NOT calling the JO a “snake in the grass”, I mean the TSS, etc.):
Some comments under your article on A7
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/357010
yvonne 17 minutes ago
It appears that under the Abraham Accords Palestinians would be removed as an entity inside Israel or competing with Israel over territory There is already a map, still to be negotiated and defined on what it might look like. It will NOT be negotiations between Palestinians and Israelis to decide on the final outcome, but a regional matter, and include Israel sort of similar to creation of the EU, and it would also require, in order to have peace in the area, input and participation by Iran, possibly even Turkey. Biden is correct when he says that he does not see an immediate result. Whether the newly formed entity would be a kingdom or a Republic, one should be aware that it would be an Islamic entity. I do not expect it to be a Republic. Finally, the argument that *leftist want to remove religion from Israel* I do not think that would be the case. They might be interested, however, in separation of religion and state, similar to the US, which still calls itself One Nation Under God.
Reader 18 seconds ago [4:35pm DST 07-24-22]
Replying to yvonne
The Two-State Final Solution is being replaced with a Pan-Arab entity with (eventually) replacing or ruling over Israel (pray that the new entity won’t actually DESTROY Israel and its population) the way the EU rules over its European countries, except this will be an A(rab)U with the Arab majority in population and votes.
This was what the British wanted – a Pan-Arab ME ruled by the British – substitute “the US” for “the British” and this is what you get.
@Ted Belman
I hope you’re right. May Hashem grant His blessings of peace upon Klal Yisroel.
The Jordan Option, which I support, seems to depend heavily on one man, Mudar Zahran. I have asked this question before, and here I ask it again. What happens to the plan if, heaven forbid, Mudar is no longer part of the equation? The (JO) plan must be based on a idea rather than a person. Does Zahran have an organization, a party, or at least an heir-apparent?
@rREADER
I never said that. Israel will not rule over Jordanians. Read with an open mind, please.
Israel will rule over Jordanian citizens?
I can’t wrap my mind around this.
@YehoshuaK
Just a few weeks away but I can’t tell you how.
The Jordan Army and Intelligence Services will be at his disposal to protect him and to clamp down on dissidents. Not considered a problem.
Israel is on board.
Wait and see.
Interesting. Granting, for the sake of discussion, the trustworthiness of Dr. Zahran, I have a few questions.
1) What is Dr. Zahran’s path to power in Jordan?
2) Once he is in power in Jordan, what threats to his power will exist?
3) What is the path towards Israeli acceptance of this approach, and the bringing to power of a government that establishes it as core foreign policy?
No matter how trustworthy Dr. Zahran may be, if he cannot achieve and hold power in Jordan, and if he does not find an Israeli government prepared to work with him in dismantling the PA and implementing the plan discussed in this article, then this approach cannot be implemented. So I am very interested in know the answers to these questions.
@ted belman
Get real