| It is a good omen that some Jordanian national figures, like former Prime Minister Ahmed Ebidat, have called for cementing Palestinian-Jordanian solidarity in the face of Zionist hegemony.
After all, we all know for sure that Israel, a virulent and hateful state based on bellicosity, aggression and ethnic cleansing, is targeting Jordan and its people as it has Palestine and its people.
Some naïve Jordanians and other Arabs might be prompted to think that the conclusion of the so-called Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty ended Israeli ambitions in Jordan. However, the truth is that the Wadi Araba Treaty only had a temporary dormant effect on Zionist ambitions across the river.
These irredentist Talmudic whims are no where stronger than among the political parties making up the present Israeli coalition government led by Benyamin Netanyahu. Needless to say most of these parties view Jordan as constituting “the eastern Land of Israel.”
Several years ago, a former speaker of the Israeli Knesset, Dov Shilansky, was invited to Jordan by the late King Hussein. And as the plane, which Shilansky and other Jewish dignitaries were on board, crossed the river en route to Amman, Shilansky remarked that “we have reached another part of Eretz Yisrael” (Land of Israel.”
Similarly, the ideologies and charters of most if not all the nationalist and religious Jewish political parties, including the Likud, consider Jordan as part of “biblical and historical Israel .”
Hence, Jordanians, irrespective of their ethnical backgrounds, should never allow themselves to be deluded into thinking that Israel is honest about peace with Jordan.
True, the Jordanian-Palestinian relations have not always been idealistic. But it is also true, that Jordanians in the thousands have shed their blood defending Palestine against Zionist encroachment.
Have we forgotten the heroic Jordanian efforts to repulse Zionist gangs at Bab-el-wad in 1948 when General Habes al Majali crushed early Zionist attempts to overrun East Jerusalem? Have we forgotten Gen. Mashhur Haditha who ordered his men to pummel Israeli troops that crossed the River Jordan with heavy artillery during the Battle of Karama in 1968?
Yes, we certainly didn’t agree with some of the policies of the Hashemite establishment before and after the 1967 catastrophe. But our own behavior has not always been idealistic toward the Jordanian state and army, which eventually led to the occurrence of the bleak experience of Black September in 1970 when stupid blunders on the part of the Fedayeen led to the war of the brothers in which a lot of young Jordanians and Palestinians were killed in vain.
None the less, the Jordanian and Palestinian peoples are the two most homogeneous and closest Arab peoples, given their ethnic, cultural and religious commonality. We are actually one people, as Arab clans on both sides of the River Jordan have one common ancestry.
This indisputable fact should debunk all the myths about any proclaimed intrinsic distinctiveness, let alone contradictions, between Jordanians and Palestinians.
It should also demolish all parochial ideologies such as territorial nationalism, namely exaggerated Palestinian and Jordanian nationalisms, ideologies that grow out of fanatical tribalism which Islam condemns as acts of Jahilyya or ignorance.
Ahmed Ebidat told the truth when he said that Palestinian nationalism was a camaraderie of suffering and struggle against encroaching Zionism and that it was in no way an antithesis of Jordanian nationalism.
He also reflected the views and feelings of most Jordanians and Palestinians when he said that all Jordanian citizens ought to enjoy equal rights irrespective of their ethnical backgrounds. In the final analysis, the main and sole threat to both Jordan and Occupied Palestine comes from Israel. Any prevarication in this regard should be viewed as an expression of dishonesty or even malicious intent.
I know that we on both banks of Jordan shouldn’t rush toward any emotional and unplanned steps toward a possible re-unification. After all, reunification with Jordan, in the absence of the liberation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, wouldn’t be politically expedient for the Arab cause.
Moreover, a revival of Palestinian-Jordanian political unity must in no way be allowed to be manipulated by the Zio-Nazi regime in order to legitimize the arrogation of Palestinian lands and denial of Palestinian rights by Israel.
Furthermore, there must be a total and absolute consensus among Jordanians and Palestinians that Jordan belongs to the Jordanians and Palestine belongs to the Palestinians and that in no way and under no circumstances would the two peoples tolerate a situation where Jordan is cajoled or coerced into agreeing to become an alternative homeland for Palestinian refugees.
However, there are many ways of cooperation between the people of Jordan and Palestine. After all, we virtually have the same culture, same way of life, same socio-economic goals.
Relations between Jordan and Occupied Palestine shouldn’t be competitive but integrative and complementary. Our goals are the same, our aspirations are strikingly similar, and our enemy is one and only. It is called Israel.
More to the point, Palestinians should welcome and encourage any Jordanian orientation to cancel or reconsider, even if gradually, the unwise Jordanian decision of 1989 to dismantle the administrative and legal ties with the West Bank.
The Re-institution of these ties should strengthen the Palestinians’ ability to survive and thwart Zionist efforts to empty our homeland of its real people.
In the final analysis, the people of Jordan and the People of Palestine can’t and will not have separate fates. According to the Islamic prophecy, the liberation of Palestine from the hands of Zionist Jews, will come from the east, namely from Jordan .
Our fate, our kismet is that we are one people. We must not escape this ineluctable fate.
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Desertpeace 
david singer said,
May 20, 2010 at 12:13
I never thought I would see the day when I could ever believe that Khalid and I could agree on anything.
Yet here he is pleading for the restoration of Palestinian-Jordanian unity and for Jordan to return to the West Bank to replace the corrupt and totally unprincipled PA and its discredited creator – the PLO.
At last an Arab journalist has had the guts to write:
“None the less, the Jordanian and Palestinian peoples are the two most homogeneous and closest Arab peoples, given their ethnic, cultural and religious commonality. We are actually one people, as Arab clans on both sides of the River Jordan have one common ancestry.
This indisputable fact should debunk all the myths about any proclaimed intrinsic distinctiveness, let alone contradictions, between Jordanians and Palestinians.
It should also demolish all parochial ideologies such as territorial nationalism, namely exaggerated Palestinian and Jordanian nationalisms, ideologies that grow out of fanatical tribalism which Islam condemns as acts of Jahilyya or ignorance.”
Well said Khalid. Hopefully Obama. the European Union, and the Arab League have read your piece. Their comments on the above statements would make interesting reading.
After this epiphany anything – even peace – is possible.
david singer said,
May 24, 2010 at 04:15
I am surprised at the stunned silence that has followed since the publication of this article.
Steve – don’t you even have a comment?
After all some circuit breaker is needed to end the current impasse. I understand you still cling to the “two-state” solution but isn’t the re-entry of Jordan into the West Bank the lifesaver the Jews and the Arabs are looking for when the “two-state” solution is officially pronounced to be dead and buried?
david singer said,
May 24, 2010 at 07:09
I am surprised at the studied silence that has followed the publication of this article.
Steve – have you any opinion you would like to share on Amayreh’s idea?
I know you still favour the two state solution but that is really dead and buried.