Jordan Was the Original Two-State Solution

The following is a brief timeline of events and not meant to be all encompassing. It asks the question as to why Israel, rather than Jordan, should be expected to give up land. Jordan was part of the original two-state solution and can be part of the new two-state solution.

In 1917, the Balfour Declaration was issued, which was intended to create a national home for the Jewish people in the British territory of Palestine. Palestine was not a country, but geographic territory under British control. At that time, anyone called Palestinian was a reference to someone who was Jewish. Arab was always used to refer to someone who was Muslim.

Despite the Declaration, it took five years to bring about a formal declaration from the world through the League of Nations and a separate resolution from the United States. The United States was never a part of the League of Nations and had no vote in the now defunct body. They had voted to make the Balfour Declaration a reality.

The world had grown tired of Britain dragging their feet and wanted to encourage them to keep their word. Had the pressure been greater, history of the Jewish people in Europe could have been quite different and it would have given Jews someplace to flee to and countless could have been saved from the National Socialists.

In 1947, 30 years after the Balfour Declaration and millions of Jews dead throughout Europe, was when the United Nations voted in favor of a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jewish state became Israel and the Arab state became Jordan. Jordan was supposed to be a means to bring about peace in the region and was the original two-state solution.

Despite being created at the same time through the exact same political machinations, Israel alone has been criticized since her rebirth and tirelessly attacked through military and terroristic methods. The newly created Jordan was one of the countries who took part in the effort to crush the Jewish state early and only through miraculous means was Israel able to keep any land and survive as a country.

The Arab-Israeli War, also known as Israel’s War of Independence, took place from 1947 – 1949. During that time, Jordan took portions of the land that had originally been partitioned for a Jewish state. It was not until 1967, the Six-Day Way, that Israel was able to retake the land that had been taken.

Israel is not being asked to give up land they took during war, but they are being asked to give up land they retook. Why is Jordan not asked to give up land for peace? Why is Israel, one of the smallest countries in the world, the only one expected to give up anything to bring about peace?

In September of 1970, a conflict was fought between Jordanian forces and the PLO. This incident came to be known as Black September. It was an attempt by what people now referred to as Palestinians to overthrow King Hussein and take the country for themselves.

In 1970, three years after the Six-Day War ended, 2/3 of the population of Jordan were Palestinians, as they had become known by this time. They had created their own state within the borders of Jordan and their capital was Amman. The PLO, lead by Yasser Arafat, used militias to rule the streets with brutal efficiency.

The war that Yasser Arafat had started to take Jordan resulted in as many as 15,000 militants and civilians dead. The PLO leadership had been devastated and tens of thousands were left homeless. In 1971, the PLO had been completely expelled from Jordan.

Many Arab leaders referred to the actions taken by King Hussein as ‘Overkill’ and not one has ever demanded they return any land that had once been held by the Palestinians. Palestinian towns and refugee camps, both of which were used to store weapons, were completely leveled. They responded to numerous terrorist attacks with overwhelming military force.

How did they come to make up such a great part of the population of Jordan? It started when the Arab world attacked Israel in 1947 and took them in as refugees of their own making. Israel lost land in the war and was not able to retake it until 1967.

There was no condemnation, other than being called ‘Overkill’ by any nation in the world. The PLO was, and remains, an Iranian backed terrorist organization and Yasser Arafat was the father of modern terrorism. Jordan had every right to take action against an attempted overthrow of the government and will never be asked to give up any land in the name of peace.

Terrorists do not want peace and will only use peace talks to buy time to arm themselves. Hamas, Hezbollah, the PLO and Islamic Jihad are all Iranian backed terrorist organizations with the singular goal of killing as many Jews as they can. Thousands of Jews have been killed by terrorist attacks and the Israeli government has shown far more restraint that the Jordanian government.

A lot of excuses are made for the terrorist attacks and seek to lay the blame on Israel. They act as if Jewish people were never targeted by terrorists until after Israel became a nation. In 1929, the Hebron Massacre resulted in almost 70 Jewish deaths at the hands of terrorists, which predates Israeli’s return as a country and was under British rule at the time.

There are those who believe, much like Chamberlain, that peace should be sought at all costs. If the Muslims who call themselves Palestinians today have their own country, then they would have no need to carry out terrorist actions. Much like Hitler, the Muslims who call themselves Palestinians today, have no interest in peaceful existence.

Let those who believe in peace call upon Jordan to give up land and let the Palestinians return to the place they had called home. It was the Jordanian military that killed more than all the actions taken by the IDF combined. Israel may level the homes of convicted terrorists, but it was the Jordanian Army that leveled entire towns and drove them out of their borders.

If a country of their own is all they want, then let it be from a country with far more land to spare. Israel cannot afford to give up land and still be able to effectively defend itself, which is what any country has the right to do. From a strategic perspective, Israel barely has enough land to defend itself as it is.

Israel is just over 8000 square miles, which is less than 21,000 square kilometers. Jordan is just under 35,000 square miles, which is almost 89,000 square kilometers. That’s a vast difference and Jordan has more than enough to give up land for a Palestinian country and still be defensible.

If a country of their own will truly bring peace, then let Jordan lead the way and make the offer. For those who truly believe peace should be sought at all costs, this is common sense. However, those who only seek to weaken Israel will see this as something far different.

There are those who want Israel to give up land and claim peace as the intent, but their hatred of Israel will blind them to any reality. Strong emotions like hatred overpowers reason, but always needs an excuse. These are the ones who do not care about Israel’s ability to defend itself and will always seek to shift the blame from the terrorists to Israel.