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.
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.
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