Jordan's conundrum

Jordan, which is often referred to as a product of the post-World War I order, has long been wary of Israel, despite the peace treaty the two signed in 1994.

Although Sharif Hussein bin Ali and his sons played a key role in tackling the Ottoman Empire in the Great Arab Revolution (1921-1920), the British government did not believe they were fit to rule over the Hejaz and control over the territory was instead handed over to the Al-Saud clan.

The descendents of Sharif Hussein then rose to power in Syria, Iraq, and Jordan, but they only managed to maintain their political power in Jordan.

When Saddam Hussein attacked Kuwait in the early 1990s, King Hussein of Jordan addressed himself as Sharif Hussein since he thought the Iraqi dictator's plans to rewrite the map of the Middle East would finally succeed and that he could finally return to Hejaz, which he saw as his long-lost fatherland.

The land which is now known as Jordan was once divided into halves by the Jordan River. The British government gave the east side to Abdullah, one of the descendents of Sharif Hussein.

In 1921, Abdullah declared himself the king of Eastern Jordan, and following the end of the Second World War, on May 25, 1945, the newly-created kingdom of Jordan was officially recognized by the British.

Following the end of British rule in Palestine, the creation of Israel, and the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the Kingdom of Jordan annexed the West Bank and consequently in 1950 the two sides of Jordan united to form a single entity and stayed together until the occupation by Israeli forces in 1967.

In 1988, King Hussein of Jordan broke ties with the West Bank and expelled its representatives from the Jordanian Parliament.

Ever since the 1948 and 1967 wars, a significant segment of the Palestinian refugee community has lived in Jordan, to the point where they make up around 60 percent of the Jordanian population.

With a below average economy, Jordan clearly had no choice but to promote relations with its neighbors.

Afterwards, the Jordanian government vehemently denied negotiating with Israel during war despite concrete evidence that King Hussein paid a secret visit to Israel before the 1973 war to inform Tel Aviv about an upcoming attack by Egypt and Syria.

Israel has always had a “Jordanian solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The option, which was strongly backed by right-wing Likud members such as former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon, basically proposed the removal of Palestinians from the West Bank and their homeland and their relocation to Jordan.

Advocates of such an option believed that Jordan was the new Palestine and the resettlement of Palestinians in Jordan was a panacea for all problems.

Although the 1994 accord signed by King Hussein and former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was supposed to allay concerns in Jordan, lingering uneasiness remains for King Hussein's successors in the Arab kingdom.

This concern was highlighted only a few days ago when Israeli legislator Arieh Eldad submitted a proposal for the creation of a Palestinian state in Jordan.

Eldad, who is a member of the National Union fundamentalist party in the Israeli Knesset, called on the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to consider his proposal.

But his request was turned down by Tsahi Hanegbi of the Kadima Party, who said he believed the move would heighten tension between Jordan and Israel. However, Hanegbi was careful not to rule out the idea altogether, and only suggested that such a proposal should be discussed and debated at a later time.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military's recent announcement that it plans to expel a large number of alleged Palestinian infiltrators from the West Bank has only added to the concerns of King Abdullah II, the current ruler of Jordan.

The so-called infiltrators are mostly Gazans, who have been living in the West Bank for the past few decades.

If the plan is implemented, families would be wrecked and about 70,000 people would be expelled.

Israel has already expelled about 50,000 Palestinians over the past few weeks. King Abdullah II is worried that if Israel continues expelling Palestinians, they will all end up in his country since they must travel to Gaza via Jordan and Egypt.

He believes the forced exodus of Palestinians to Jordan is a red line that should not be crossed since it would give rise to an all-out military confrontation.

Controversy over the issue intensified in Jordan after a number of retired army commanders wrote a letter in which they argued against giving Jordanian citizenship to Palestinian immigrants.

Perhaps no one in Israel takes the Jordanian king's warning seriously, but his concerns are serious and deep-rooted.