Jordan is Palestine by MK Arieh Eldad

Jordan is Palestine

By MK Arieh Eldad

Slowly, almost stealthily, the voices are beginning to break through.

For years people have been trying to brainwash us with the slogan "two states for two peoples." Anyone who dared to deny this falsehood was mocked. Anyone who continued to argue that a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River would be a strategic threat to Israel was branded a stubborn mule, someone who denied what the whole world believes. An infinite number of conferences held and attended by collaborators with murder organizations metamorphosed into discussions in the corridors of power, and when even the leaders of Israel, whether by naivete or stupidity, were duped by these hallucinations, then even the president of the United States began seeing false and evil visions, which in turn received the blessing of the corrupt Israeli leaders, and suddenly - from what was called a dangerous strategic threat to Israel at a time when Rabin said "a Palestinian state will rise only on the ruins of Israel," the danger became a desire, and from a disaster it turned into an Israeli interest. Only the Arabs saved us from this death wish and stupidity.

The architects of the Oslo Accords, both the living and deceased, were directly and personally responsible for the murder of 1,500 Israelis in their homes and our streets; then came the withdrawal from Gaza, the expulsion of thousands of Israeli residents, the terrible destructions we brought on ourselves and our immediate punishment: Hamas' rise to power, thousands of Kassam rockets falling on Israel, the war in Lebanon, the civil war in Gaza, and the unwillingness of the IDF and Israeli leaders to stop the rocket fire.

And now, a change. Most Israelis now know what they once knew, which is that the enemy does not want an independent state adjacent to ours but wants to take ours from us. The voices have begun to be heard even across the seas: in the U.S., those of centrist think tanks, not only those identified with the conservative right, and of senior government officials. The White House is still jabbering about President Bush's vision and still calling to prop up the scarecrow named Abu Mazen, and Olmert and his corrupt and failing gang of courtiers are still toeing that line. But others are already talking openly about making new plans for the day when the vision disintegrates when Israel will have a new prime minister.

Unsurprisingly, the Palestinians also understand that the vision was hallucinatory. And as if from nowhere the Jordanian option is being floated. There are several versions. Peres, who brought upon us the Oslo disaster, still wants to return the rule of the Jordanian Kingdom to Judea and Samaria. Netanyahu has heard the tune but is a bit confused about the words and wants to bring the Palestinian Badr Battalion from Jordan to Eretz Israel. Others are inventing all sorts of confederations and joint governments, and they still don't have the courage to open their eyes and say to themselves and the world: Jordan is Palestine. Between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean, only one country has a right to exist, the State of Israel. Palestinians have a state across the river. They are 70 percent of its citizens. The land of Israel was already divided into two countries when Churchill tore what lies across from the Jordan River from our national home and gave it to the Arabs in 1922. And even if this was an historic crime against the Jewish people, it is already an historic fact we failed to change. And today we can turn it into a tool for resolving the conflict. Jordan is Palestine and in it millions of refugees from camps in Judea, Samaria, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan itself can be resettled. Desalinization plants, power plants, cities, and economic development can be provided for them. A voluntary transfer of populations is both possible and supremely moral, certainly more moral than the bloodbaths planned for us by those dreaming of partitioning our country and establishing a Palestinian state west of the Jordan river. Voluntary transfer will occur when refugees who today earn $700 annually in Shechem can cross the river and earn $7,000 annually in Jordan, where industry will be ready to absorb hundreds of thousands of new employees. Those who remain west of the Jordan River will remain residents of Israel and citizens of Jordan-that-is-Palestine. And Jordan will also agree to this, perhaps with a sour face, but with the understanding that the alternative is Hamas in Judea and Samaria which is as dangerous to Jordan as it is to us. Therefore, the former Jordanian prime minister Al Majali and the former Palestinian "interior minister" Nasr Yusef are ready to renew public discussions about the Jordanian option. Not yet with the simple potentially successful formula "Jordan is Palestine" but with an acknowledgement that there is no option for an independent Palestinian state west of the Jordan.

This truth must be spoken over and over until it is learned even by those Jews still singing the Palestinian anthem without realizing that the Palestinians themselves are singing different tunes.

MK Arieh Eldad is a leading Member of Israel's Knesset.