A workable solution

Submitted by Samir (United States), Jan 7, 2009 at 15:07

Dear Mr Pipes,

your right re the idea of returning Gaza to Egypt and the West Bank to Jordan.

The fundamental assumption may hold, but in practise it may not be precisely as stated.

First: in the Arab streets of what was Mandatory Palestine (1921),

from the Mediterranean to Iraq including the Golan, the dream is still to

liquidate the Jewish State along with all its Jewish inhabitants. Indeed,

many Arabs of Palestine pay lip service to the idea of two states, Jewish

Israel alongside Arab Falastin. The geography of the latter would comprise

the West Bank & Gaza (WeBaG) as the Oslo agreement stated. However,

this is a 'hashish pipe dream since such a Falastin would be a failed entity as it could only

exist as a beggar nation, supported by funds from everywhere but its own

self. Falastin simply does not have sufficient land nor water for other

than limited agriculture. Its population is not a candidate for cheap labor

competing with Asia. Neither is it potentially hi-tech. It has no oil. It

will be a mendicant nation, a failed state. Not even democracy has a chance

there, since the population is, simply stated, riven by hotheads, and its

leadership both corrupt and incompetent.

Hence the idea I have been promoting for some time: the only chance for a long-term process toward solution is to integrate the territories of Gaza and West Bank (call them "cantons", as in Switzerland), and make them semi-autonomous regions under the protection of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

By the Cantons not participating in Jordanian politics, the Hashemite family can forestall threats upon its supremacy. To guide the, Cantons, a Governor or Viceroy can be appointed who has much cache in the Palestinian world. Perhaps Prince 'Hassan, the uncle of Jordan's King Abdallah, could take the job. Security for Israel and for Jordan would be policed by the Jordanians. Eventually also by home-grown police. Local corruption and incompetence would eventually give way to something better.

Eventually the claims by the Jewish refugees from the Arab countries and the Arab refugees, both from 1948 et al and their respective descendants, would be adjudicated by an acceptable third party. Mainly, the economy of the Cantons would be bolstered by the well established and better managed Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

To make this viable, the 'Hamas violence must be quelled, as well as the sporadic violence from Fatta'h in the Palestinian Authority.

The critical points are the absence of desire on part of Egypt to saddle itself with Gazans, an absence I fully understand. Secondly, there must be selling points for the idea to bought by the Hashemite House. Decreasing the Palestinian threat to their longevity is a good sales point. The process as I suggested might actually achieve that longevity for the Hashemites. Gaza could be an asset to Jordan, as it would provide access to the Mediterranean.

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