Strange bedfellows

King Abdullah tries to woo the Israelis into accepting the Arab Peace Plan

By Khaled Amayreh in East Jerusalem
Al-Ahram Weekly

"....According to the Israeli media, the king told the visiting Israeli officials that, "we are in the same boat, we have the same problems, and we have the same enemies.".....

More significantly, Abdullah II is said to have told the Israeli delegation that clauses in the Arab Peace Plan pertaining to the Palestinian refugees' right of return should be understood as referring to "compensation" not "repatriation", and that "everything will be consensual and that the Arab Peace Plan was not actually a plan but merely a talking point.".....

However, government spokesman Nasser Judeh denied that the king ever made these remarks during the meeting.....

The king's remarks drew angry reactions throughout the occupied Palestinian territories and at various levels. Hamas asked the Jordanian government to clarify the statements attributed to the king in regard to the right of return and also Hamas being an enemy of Jordan.....

A more stinging response to the royal statements came from the Palestinian public. Abdul-Sattar Qassem, professor of political science at An-Najah University in Nablus and former presidential candidate, argued that Palestinians would attach more credibility to the Hebrew press reports on the King's statements than to denials by Jordanian officials. "It is true the Israelis lie a lot, but Arab leaders lie even more, they are inured to lying to their people and to deceiving and misleading them.

"We, the Arab and Muslim masses, know quite well for many decades that you [Jordanian officials] and the Zionist entity face a common enemy and that enemy is the United Arab Islamic Trend. We also know that you have been coordinating intelligence efforts against all free Arab and Islamic movements. "We are your and Israel's common enemy. But we will continue our struggle for the unity of the Arab umma. So, do what you may, and kill whomever you want to kill, for eventually you will only reap defeat."

The severity of Palestinian reaction to the Jordanian king's reported remarks reflect a growing determination to cling to the right of return for the refugees as a paramount right that should never be compromised especially as Israel continues to steal more Palestinian land and build Jewish-only settlements in the occupied territories......

There is no doubt that the Jordanian leadership, namely King Abdullah II, is very worried about the possible ramifications and turbulence that may engulf the region, especially its most vulnerable spots, such as Jordan, if the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is allowed to linger on without resolution....."