The Hashemite kingdom of the Refugees... by Jamil Shawwa

The Palestinians in Jordan according to realistic data count to 70% of the population and according to official Jordanian data count to 45% of the same population were not the first refugees to settle in Jordan.

The Palestinians who fled the war torn pre-1948 Historic Palestine, the State of Israel except for the West Bank and Gaza,  were the second wave of refugees; the first refugees that came to this piece of land East of the Jordan river were the Hashemites themselves, who rule Jordan now. Prior to their move to Jordan, The Hashemites ruled what is known now of the Saudi Arabia- to be precise part of it.  They for generations, ruled the revered Muslim cities of Mecca and Medina, and they according to them and other historians are dissident of the prophet Muhammad who himself  came from the premiere tribe in Mecca, known as Quriesh.The Hashemites at some point  in the 20th century and through the late 1950s ruled Jordan, Syria and Iraq. The Hashemites, talented and gifted politicians but with not much luck. They were kicked out of Syria, and then they were massacred in  Iraq by a bloody coup in  1958. They  now rule Jordan, which is surrounded by the State of Israel, The West Bank and Gaza- as a one unit- Iraq, Syria-tough neighborhood as  the current king, Abdullah, says anytime he has a chance to face the media and talk about the Middle East and the Palestinian issue. Here we get to the thrust of this article and the entrance and a conclusion; tough neighborhood and politics. The king wants to change the reputation of his kingdom to something else, to a country ,that if he could, has nothing to do with the Palestinians in the West Bank- Gaza is gone, does not count, and actually was never part of the Jordanians domain, although some individuals were loyal to the Hashemite, they, the Hashemite have never been popular, nor did they ever claimed Gaza, they played the United Arab Kingdom in the early 1970s but that it was just that, a play, a political maneuver that preceded the October 1973 war-  the same way they claimed the West Bank and its heart Jerusalem. Gaza had an Egyptian presence until Egypt was defeated in the Six Days War  in June of 1967 with Israel and was kicked out of Gaza and  from its own Sinai by the Israeli forces. But the king cannot escape history and cannot escape the Palestinian presence and cannot so far melt them in a Jordanian identity that would have nothing to do with a word called Palestinians. The reason is simple, they the Jordanians cannot stand  the word Jordanian- Palestinian like to say for example Arab- American, or Irish -American or Palestinian or Israeli American; they just cannot. Jordan with Lebanon, have been the only two Arab countries, clearly, that their politics directly attached in steel chain links with the Palestinian problem or solution. The reason is again the Palestinian refugees- generations of them since 1948- living in both countries in numbers that if added to the original population, would, theoretically change the demography drastically in the favor of the Palestinians- in theory only, again, but with democracy and one identity; it should not, because the loyalty by large will be to the new identity and not to something that does not exist or cannot be gotten back or even, the majority do not want it back and does not make sense even in thinking of getting it back- but of course historically the Arabs and the Palestinians played the refugees card, blackmailed their own people, the Palestinians and the Arabs, in the name of Palestine. Arab dictators and their local puppets and cronies in Gaza and the West Bank and other Arab capitals, Amman-Jordan one of them of course, claimed legitimacy because as they said- deceivingly and hypocritically- that they are there, in power, absolute corrupted power, that there is no democracy, because there is a bigger fish to fry; who else but  the Palestinians and they were right here; they did fry the Palestinians and also fried their own.
Both Jordan and lebanon had civil wars directly because of the Palestinian armed presence there, Jordan in 1970 and Lebanon, just five years after, in 1975, and after the PLO was kicked out of Jordan and moved to Lebanon as a result of the Cairo Agreement in 1969 that the Maronite lebanese president and Army commander- both Christian Maronites agreed on with the top Arab dictator at the time, Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt; who else could it be and with a rising star in Arab and Palestinian politics that went  by the name of Yasser Arafat.  The Arabs involvement in the Palestinian problem since 1948 brought only disasters to the Palestinian cause. But the Arabs were not the only convicts in the affair, the Palestinians leadership was involved directly in making the Palestinian case or cause, a lost case. and a lost cause. Not until Yasser Arafat took over in the late 1960s that the Palestinian problem took a Palestinian direction, gained momentum in the international arena; first through what some called terrorism, others called struggle, but then gained momentum through peace and then through peacemaking the Palestinian issue or question became headed by a Palestinian and created an identity around it, and that it was no longer a refugees issue but bigger than that, it became a journey to establish a Palestinian State based on two UN resolutions, 242 and 338, which state a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza; the rest is the State of Israel . The  Golan Heights will be resolved and with arrangements with the State of Israel,  will be returned back to Syria. So the future will consist of states that already exist in the Middle East but will add a state or two, Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza, and maybe at some point a Kurdistan, which I personally think will be strategically fantastic to have for all the countries involved, Turkey, Iraq and Syria. The Middle East though this perspective will be a land of practical peace and not a dream peace, why dream it, why sing it, if you can actually make it happen. Jordan will no longer be the country of the refugees,Palestinians, Iraqis, Syrians, Chechens, Armenians, kurds, and all other kinds, but will be a Jordanian state with the Hashemites, possibly, as the non governing constitutional monarchy and a symbol to have for the bedouins there and as a stabilizing factor in the area.

California....a developing country...by Jamil Shawwa

I read somewhere sometime ago that if California were a country by itself, it would rank as  one of the biggest economies in the world: in the first Ten largest economies in the world. What happened...California for over 20 years has been suffering from layoffs, chronic budget deficits, flamboyant governors who do not know their Behinds from their Front and politicians in Sacramento, the state capital, who keep fighting not over how to make the State the biggest economy in the world; imagine, one state in America, but fighting over the number of layoffs they need to do and the taxes they need to increase. As if layoffs, higher taxes and budget cuts especially in education, as it has been going , are the solution. I’m not an economist, but again, if I bring someone from the street, and give them California and its unbelievable resources and infrastructure and corporations and everything, and tell them, please, you do not have to do anything but to manage, to observe...I’m sure this street person would do a better job than our friend here that the Californians brought from an antique museum; Governor Jerry Brown, or the one before him, the Muscles brains, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and the one before him, who the Californians ousted actually, and recalled -kicked him out of office in referendum in 2003-Gray Davis. Now, the governor and the state government are scrambling to understand why there is 15 billion dollars budget deficits; the answer is simple; you, the governor and the politicians in Sacramento. In the picture is governor Brown discussing a "Tax Hike". picture is via AP.

Mitt Romney’s 05/12/2012 Liberty University Vs. George W. Bush’s 02/02/2000 Bob Jones University....by Jamil Shawwa

Today, Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican party nominee for president of the United States went to Liberty University in Lynchburg, Virginia- my State- to talk family values, to face the bastion of American political Evangelism,and to sell himself; Mitt Romney, the Mormon, as the choice for the conservatives Americans to run for president. The University is the largest Evangelical Christian University in the world,. Conservatism in America, by large, means, Evangelical Christian political values and institutions- The Catholic Church  also has joined most of the times in this quest of preserving  political conservatism. But in reality, although powerful, historically, their actual voting power does not exceed, based on my own calculations, more that 20% of the overall registered  Americans who go and vote, but still, they are powerful, and among them are leaders who influence others- like any other political medium. It also has been a tradition for Republican party  nominee to go to these universities and talk, a normal political tradition, to talk and address the base- although the base and the demography in America are changing rapidly, still religious Christians and overall evangelicals and catholics christians, make a large chunk of the, politically, influential  voting population. The issues Romney addressed today were not the same issues, although the theme is the same; family values, when *George W. Bush on 02/02/200, as a the Republican party nominee, to be,  visited another, yet much more controversial university, Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina. Today the compelling religious /political issue is gay marriage and what constitutes a family, when George W. Bush visited Bob Jones University, the issue was worse, I believe, which was institutional discriminations that the university had in place; banning interracial dating. *On 05/24/1983, The US Supreme Court ruled against Bob Jones University in Bob Jones v. the United States (461 U.S. 574). but the university refused to reverse the interracial policy, not until  after George W. Bush visited that the university in 2000 dropped its policy all together. The relevance is not only, in my opinion, in visiting religious schools although the tradition is very interesting, but the controversial debate that accompanied and coincides with these two visits. In 2000, America did not have any problem with interracial dating and marriage,except  of course for  those that until now continue to struggle with their prejudices and continue to have issues with it but it is something that exist in every county in the globe, if it is not religion, it's the color of the skin, or the national background or the social class and so on and so forth. Today’s issue is much more controversial, maybe as but not as strong or near the  interracial mingling in the 1950s and the 1960s and with Bob Jones University continued until 2000- Not sure how the university was not held in contempt for not executing the Supreme Court ruling of 1983 to ban discrimination and separation of mingling together for various the ethnic groups. So in 2000, Bob Jones University was a sore thumb to the Republican party. Liberty university does not have any controversial policies or history as far as I’m concerned so the School itself today was not the issues as Bob Jones was then, but the issue is the issue, if I can use the term- there is always something in politics and if none is found, which is almost impossible, then the politicians would create one.  Gay marriage; President Obama and the Democratic political establishment and media and fundraising machines came very strong to address it and elevate it at this crucial juncture of the political debate just few months away from the presidential elections., Yet, the elevation was calculated, started with Vice President  Biden approving Gay marriage- actually, before that ,the former president, Bill  Clinton, in an interview approved it and said that gay couple can enter into a normal traditional marriage- President Obama gave it his approval afterward, but Biden apologized for putting the boss on the spot; usual political maneuvers, good cop, bad cop, style. The bottom line is that the Democrats, came out of the of the closet, and approved. and it  became a hot politically debatable issue few months before the presidential elections- but the Republicans do not like it.  Romney today, did not talk  directly about gay marriage ; very smart, anything else, would have  been a  political stupidity at this stage, he talked values, and talked about that marriage is between a man and a woman, but did not criticize other options and did not blast gay marriage or the gay lifestyle in general. Romney the Mormon, talked to the heart of  America’s Protestant evangelical, bastion, talked politics, and talked pragmatism and addressed  what America loves the most; debate the issues, keep the door slightly open, do not close it  or shut it all the way. The American Bill of Rights can be interpreted in many ways, and by many advocates or judges or politicians; the bottom line is this; nothing stays the same, and people or individuals will have their beliefs and the state will do the same and both can switch, or change or amend, or work a deal or something. Obama started reversing, including the immigration policies, policies that constitute that marriage is only an institution between a man and a woman; the way I see it, no president after him will reverse what he reversed.


*Sources: Wikipedia research on Bob Jones University and the Supreme Court decision  (461 U.S. 574).

The Two Egypt of Egypt....by Jamil Shawwa

Egypt is not at a crossroad or on a search for identity, Egypt is on quest to erase everything that reminds her  of a past that is connected with tyranny. In doing so, Egypt is in chaos for now, it is  in what could appear to some as complete self destruction as if they, the Egyptians , if they could, they would  wipe out their  seven thousand years of history in one stroke. The rulers now are the generals of the old system, the 1952 political system that ended the monarchy in that year,1952, and established a military dictatorship that expounded since 1952 and until now. Egypt has almost always had two classes of citizens, the elites, and the “commoners”, nothing in between. The elites included not only the old aristocrats and the wealthy, but also in  what other societies known of  as the middle class, the educated layer of small business owners, senior government employees,teachers, journalists, retired police and army officers, judges,  and educators including higher education. The other layer is known  arbitrarily as the “peasants” and they mostly are from the country or upper Egypt- millions of them migrated in the 1960s and the early 1970s to the big cities hoping of the better life the biggest deceiver, Gamal Abdul Nasser, the second president of Egypt, promised but never of course delivered. Actually, Abdul Nasser added to the conflict of the two classes, and fed the fire of hatred and envy against everything that was called class or family. They, the "second layer" mostly were uneducated, which in Egypt counts to over 80% of the population. Both classes always looked at each other with disrespect, leery eyes, with suspicion and distrust. Even after the generals, the so called revolutionaries of 1952 ended formally the aristocracy between 1960-1964- when Abdul Nasser nationalized everything that had life in Egypt, kicked out the class that was the engine of the economy, including multinationals that ran away from his hatred and tyranny- they, the revolutionaries, created a new class out of them that one *Egyptian writer called the “Super Pashas”. the Pasha was an old turkish title from the days of the Ottoman empire and continued until Egypt ended it in 1952, and referred to a class of politicians and business people that historically were landlords and ministers in the government of the deposed king, Farouk. The super Pashas referred to the elites that were created after 1952 from retired military officers, and judges, and top police  officers, top university and ruling party officials that through connections to the 1952 military regime, created a wealth among themselves, manipulated export and import licenses, manipulated commodities and goods, and through their previous connections as retired generals or leaders in their  field, worked for foreign entities and made it easier for investors to do business in Egypt where connections are everything and who you know or what you do or did, would  bring wealth to your circle. In the midst of all these changes, a religious minority group maintained its life and business, the Copts, they lived well, and live well,  economically and not politically. although many of them throughout history took high government positions or reached the top echelon in business; two names stand out, Boutros Ghali, and his family, the former UN Secretary and Naguib Sawiris now, the top Copt business leader, a billionaire who took a shot at the political life after toppling the last formal president from the 1952 system, Hosni Mubarak, in January 18th of last year, but quickly was put aside by the wave of extreme religious pretentious zealots from whom claim extreme or Salafi, original Islamic teachings. Of course religiously, they are zealots that the religion has nothing to do with them, but they politically are using it to penetrate through the unassumed, uneducated and the educated but most importantly the 80% of the people who are smart but oppression and suppression for generations and decades made them vote and belong to the extremists not out of ignorance as some of the elites in Egypt think, but out of revenge. They the majority of the Egyptian people are on a journey not to reform right now, maybe later, no rush, but on a journey to destroy everything that they believe belongs to the elites, and their vehicle of manipulation and destruction are in part the Muslim Brotherhood but also other opportunists in the media that are feeding into this massive resentment towards anything that reminds them of class or authority. They are attacking embassies, asking for insane things like revoking the peace treaty with the State of Israel, which they know is theirs and the Middle East lifeline and the sensible thing to do and have. They the Egyptians are doing so, not out of hatred or out of empty so called nationalistic ideologies, but out of revenge against their own, the elitist, those Egyptians, that the majority believe were the reason that for thousands of years made them live sometimes worse than the salves. And now and here, and based on the above, I introduce the Two Egypt of Egypt. The two are fighting, a minority, the elitests this time, that is trying to protect its privileges, a minority that has been,whether they admit it or not, part of the dictatorship of the military rule of the 1952 regime, and the Egyptians who think that that class has had enough. They are on an orgnized mission to discredit it and more importantly to humeliate it. It will take probably few years for the Egyptians to release all the anger that has been transferred from generations to generations. But while the 80% of the Egyptians are on their mission to humiliate the ruling class, they in the same time are claiming back  their country, actually, for the first time in their history, the 80% are making the rules, and they are calling the shots, and the elites are scared, they are even scared to drive in some of Cairo streets in their fancy cars so they won’t provoke the hungry and the desperate and the new revolutionaries of 2011. But there is pride also for the first time among the majority of the Egyptians, that they managed to dispose the pharaoh, the last president of the military regime of 1952, even though his generals are in charge.

Egypt now is on a mission, and once its completed, I personally expect an Egypt that will pioneer democracy among the Arab countries as it did, through the old system, in pioneering the  peace initiatives among the State of Israel and the Arab and the Islamic countries. 

* Hussien Moenis, I believe is the name.
Jamil’s Notes: I attended Cairo University law school between 1986-1990,