Is the "Palestinian" cause a homeland, or simply the destruction of Israel?

From Israel National News...

Jordan is in an uproar over the revival of the "Jordanian option" - the thesis that Jordan is the true home to the "Palestinians."  Reports that a top advisor to US Presidential candidate John McCain is promoting this idea have led to a flurry of press reports in the Arab media, as well as a denial from Jordan's King Abdullah himself.

Some officials in Israel and the United States, however, feel it's the only way to prevent the formation of a Palestinian state.

The King responded defensively to the option, declaring in an interview with a Lebanese newspaper last week, “This country was made to stay. Jordan is Jordan and Palestine is Palestine."

"Palestinian Homeland" = Jordan

However, he also added another sentence that has given observers pause, wondering if he meant something else.

"The Palestinian nation has the right to a state and independent identity on the areas of Palestine," said King Abdullah II. "The Palestinians will not accept any substitute for their homeland Palestine."

Though Arabs today call Israel "Palestine," MK Benny Elon (National Union) told IsraelNationalNews that in this case, "the words 'Palestinian homeland' can mean Jordan as well... Certainly Abdullah himself remembers that the original Palestine includes Jordan - but perhaps he assumes that everyone else does not."

Elon was referring to the fact that the area of Palestine, as recognized by the League of Nations and the British rulers nearly 100 years ago, includes what is today Israel and Jordan.  King Abdullah's remarks, therefore, can mean precisely the same idea that Elon has been promoting: The Arabs of Judea and Samaria should be "annexed" to Jordan.

I have an atlas from the 30's that does indeed show the area now designated and Israel and Jordon, as one area labeled Palestine. Originally Jordan (or Trans-Jordan as it was called then) was given to the Arab occupants of Palestine, while a thin sliver of land near the sea was given to the Jewish occupants of Palestine. A large buffer zone, what is now referred to as the West Bank, was left as a neutral zone. Hashemites took Jordan from the Arabs living there and so they instantly claimed the buffer zone as theirs. After several unprovoked attacks on Israel, Israel took the West Bank, the Gaza strip and parts of the Golan Heights to ensure the safety of the people living nearby.

All the while Palestinians have been whining about a homeland and demanding land from Israel, Jordan is the land they were originally given. So why attack Israel, when the Jordanians took their land? Because it was never really about land,  but about the destruction of Israel.

Posted by Danny Carlton at June 25, 2008 8:14 AM