PA Rejects Federation Proposal

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Written by Samuel Sokol

Tuesday, 12 January 2010 19:00

Your browser may not support display of this image. Palestinian officials emphatically rejected a plan for an expanded Jordanian kingdom that would include "three 'states': the East Bank, the West Bank, and Gaza," as proposed by retired Israeli major general Giora Eiland.

Eiland, a senior research fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies and former Israeli National Security Advisor, presented a paper detailing a proposed Jordanian/Palestinian "federation" entitled "Regional Alternatives to the Two-State Solution" at Bar Ilan University's Begin-Sadat (BESA) Center on Monday.

He also proposed a land swap in which Egypt would give 720km of land to the Gaza Strip as "Gaza in its current size is not viable" and would quickly become a failed state.

The Egyptians were quick to pan the idea, saying that "the Palestinian problem should not be turned into an Egyptian problem." Egypt is currently building a steel wall on the border between the Sinai Peninsula and Gaza Strip.

The plan calls for the West Bank [Judea and Samaria] and Gaza to be reorganized as states "in the American sense, like Pennsylvania or New Jersey." They would maintain independence regarding internal administration, but as per the American model, foreign policy and national defense would be handled by the "federal" government in Amman.

PLO chief negotiator Saeb Erekat rejected the idea out of hand, telling the Five Towns Jewish Times that "Jordan is Jordan. Palestine is Palestine. Time for this talk is over. Now we are pursuing the two state solution and that's what we want." Another official from the PLO Negotiations Support Unit said that "as far as we are concerned [federation] is not an option."

Eiland admitted that his plan could not be implemented immediately in Gaza, due to Hamas' hold on the territory, but was confident that it could eventually be incorporated into the new Jordanian state. He refused to comment on the Palestinian Authority's emphatic dismissal of his plan.

He stated that "when the circumstances are right [in Gaza]. Israel will conduct political negotiations on this solution with a joint Jordanian-Palestinian delegation, as was supposed to occur in the framework of the 1991 Madrid conference."

During Monday's presentation, the former general explained that "these two solutions do not have the zero-sum nature of the conventional two-state solution. They enlarge the political pie and hence make it is easier to find a way to divide it. The two approaches - the Jordanian- Palestinian federation and the territorial exchange - do not contradict each other. They can become part of a single solution that combines the advantages of both."

A two state solution is not feasible according to Eiland, as "the maximum that any government in Israel can offer the Palestinians and survive politically is much less than the minimum that any possible Palestinian leadership can accept and survive politically."

Prime Minister Netanyahu's office refused to comment but did say that Eiland was only speaking for himself and not on behalf of the government of the state of Israel. The Prime Minister's spokesman reiterated Israel's commitment to a two state solution.

Eiland stated that bringing Judea and Samaria under Jordanian control would be a positive step in ensuring that nation's security. "If an independent Palestinian state is established in the West Bank, it will likely fall into Hamas' hands...The way to prevent instability in Jordan, which would be fueled by the future West Bank Hamas regime, would be through Jordanian military control of this territory," he claimed.

Your browser may not support display of this image. Your browser may not support display of this image. However, there is no indication that Jordan wants the responsibility for fighting Islamic fundamentalism in the form of Hamas, an offshoot of the radical Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. Jordan renounced its claim to Judea and Samaria in 1988.

The Jordanian government expelled the Palestine Liberation Organization from its territory following bloody clashes in September 1970 in which thousands of civilians were killed. The PLO had effectively set up a state within a state, similar to Hezbollah in Southern Lebanon, and was perceived as posing a direct threat to the Jordanian monarchy.

The events of Black September, as it came to be known, created a lasting enmity. According to the BESA Center's Dr. Mordechai Kedar, the Jordanians hate the Palestinian Authority Arabs to an extent that is not fully understood in Israel. This would stand in the way of any attempt at conciliation between the two parties.

Eiland has been intrigued with the concept of federation for some time. In 2008 he argued for the necessity of merging the PA and Jordan at an INSS press briefing held in conjunction with MediaCentral. In an article written for the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Eiland asserted that "if...secular, moderate Palestinians have to decide between Hamas or Jordan, many prefer Jordan."

Jordanian officials did not seem to have any knowledge of the Eiland plan when contacted by this newspaper. Neither the Jordanian embassy in Tel Aviv nor the foreign ministry in Amman responded to requests for comment.