'Jordanian Option' Not an Option, Says Shimon Shamir
Shimon Shamir, former Israeli ambassador to Jordan, tells Akiva Eldar why raising the possibility of Jordan annexing the West Bank is a slap in the face to Amman and runs counter to Israel's interests.
Fifteen minutes. That’s how long it should take President Barak Obama and his entourage to drive from Jerusalem to Ramallah. That’s all it takes without any checkpoints or traffic along the way. No more than that.
On the other hand, the president will need light years to overcome the differences surrounding the permanent settlement that exists between the leaders sitting in these two cities. And this does not take into account the endless hours he will have to spend surrounded by American Jewish lobbyists and members of Congress hoping to foil any diplomatic effort that would require Israel to withdraw from the West Bank.
As for the Palestinians, they utterly reject the infrequent signals from Israel that it is willing to change the entire framework of the talks. In other words, instead of discussing a permanent settlement based on 1967 borders, which would include the partition of Jerusalem and a solution to the refugee problem, Israel would be willing to discuss an interim agreement, based on the recognition of a Palestinian state within temporary borders (an option included in Stage B of the Road Map for Peace, proposed by George W. Bush in 2002 and rejected by the Palestinians on several occasions).
Both these paths lead to a dead end, which in turn leads to a desperate search for some kind of “out of the box” solution. One of these solutions takes us way back in time to what was once known as the Jordanian option — that is, in one way or another the Kingdom of Jordan would go back to ruling over the Palestinian population in the territories. In an article published recently in Al-Monitor, Adnan Abu Amer wrote that the option of a confederation between Jordan and Palestine, with the possibility of Israel also being a partner, was discussed at a secret meeting between Jordanian King Abdullah II and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Amman [in December 2012]. Abu Amer reported that Palestinian Authority President Abu Mazen had recently told his advisors that in the absence of an Israeli partner in a peace agreement, they should prepare for a confederation with Jordan.
