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Israel-Palestine
Jordanian King Sez "We Don’t Want ’Em - You Keep ’Em!"
2004-03-19
King Abdullah of Jordan on Thursday paid a secret visit to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Sycamore Ranch in the Negev, where the two leaders met over an extended lunch.
Chef’s nightmare - how do I make this kosher AND halal?
The Prime Minister’s Office declined to comment on details of the conversation, but a senior political source said the purpose of the meeting was to discuss the king’s concern that Palestinians would flee to Jordan.
Arab/Islamic nations and leaders have bitched and moaned for so long about "the plight of the Palestinians" while doing absolutely nothing to relieve that plight. At last, one of them is admitting why: they’re not really concerned about the Palestinians, only with using them as an issue with which to bludgeon Israel. Now that the time has come to put up or shut up...
"The visit was meant to allay King Abdullah’s fears that construction of the [West Bank] fence will prompt a flight of Palestinians over the border into Jordan," the source said. Jordan also fears that Israeli disengagement from the territories will encourage Palestinians seeking work to come to Jordan instead.
It should be fun to see how they justify refusing Palestinians entry into Jordan in light of that "ummah" thing. "Islam means we are all a community of believers, but ... quick, Muhammad, does it say anything about sharing our jobs?"

Expect other "Islamic" nations to follow suit.
Posted by:Sofia

#17  Right.... tough ones too.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-3-20 2:49:23 PM  

#16  Right.... tough ones too.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-3-20 2:44:57 PM  

#15  Jordan wouldn't dare build a fence. They would be put on trial by the ICC. College campuses (campi?) would have "teach-ins." Governments all over the world would threaten sanctions.

Right? Right?
Posted by: Jackal   2004-3-19 9:37:08 PM  

#14  Makes you wonder whether King Abdullah might be looking at the Israeli security wall.

And making notes.

And turning to his advisors, "allrighty now, we need a fence on the east side of the Jordan River, and you idiots, build it just like the evil Zionists Israelis are doing theirs. Only I want ours to be TALLER!!!"
Posted by: Steve White   2004-3-19 3:37:08 PM  

#13  This is what Wikipedia now sez about Jordan & Paleos:

"The 1967 war led to a dramatic increase in the number of Palestinians living in Jordan. Its Palestinian refugee population -- 700,000 in 1966 -- grew by another 300,000 from the West Bank. The period following the 1967 war saw an upsurge in the power and importance of Palestinian resistance elements (fedayeen) in Jordan. The heavily armed fedayeen constituted a growing threat to the sovereignty and security of the Hashemite state, and open fighting erupted in June 1970.

Other Arab governments attempted to work out a peaceful solution, but by September, continuing fedayeen actions in Jordan -- including the destruction of three international airliners hijacked and held in the desert east of Amman -- prompted the government to take action to regain control over its territory and population. In the ensuing heavy fighting, a Syrian tank force took up positions in northern Jordan to support the fedayeen but was forced to retreat. By September 22, Arab foreign ministers meeting at Cairo had arranged a cease-fire beginning the following day. Sporadic violence continued, however, until Jordanian forces won a decisive victory over the fedayeen in July 1971, expelling them from the country."

Note that since they were bombarded by PC Arabists over the last year, Wikipedia has been "cleaned" - in this case there are no longer any named references to what group the "fedayeen resistance elements" belonged. Isn't that "special"? Talk about cowards - this used to be a terrific reference source.

And JFM is right - they can pay for / build that Eastern section if they want to keep them out.
Posted by: .com   2004-3-19 3:24:10 PM  

#12  If Jordan fears West Bank Palestinians running to Amman I would dare to suggest them to build a fence. :-)
Posted by: JFM   2004-3-19 3:15:24 PM  

#11  if conditions got so bad that it looked like the population were about to flee en masse, Jordan might change its mind,

Things are never so bad on the West Bank that they can't get significantly worse. I like this option LH. Pay off the Jordanians for this act of great decency.
Posted by: Shipman   2004-3-19 2:59:41 PM  

#10  1. RE Jordan kicking Pals out

They kicked the PLO out. They did NOT kick out the ordinary Palestinians, who still make up about half the kingdoms population (many moved to the "East Bank" while the West Bank was under Jordanian rule, since economic prospects were brighter there.

2. Re Jordan taking the West Bank. That was called "the Jordan option" and was Israeli Labor party policy upto 1988 or so. At that point, under pressure from Pal activists on the West Bank during the first intifida, Jordan dropped any claim to the West Bank, and residual ties to the West Bank. Basically the West Bank is a mess, and Jordan dont want it. OTOH, if conditions got so bad that it looked like the population were about to flee en masse, Jordan might change its mind, preferring to take responsibity for the Pals in the West Bank rather than have them run to Amman. Jordan seems to be taking the position that the security barrier is a way of threatening just that, and forcing their hand. Israel presumably will deny that, while at the same time suggesting Jordan take a larger role in the West Bank.

Should be an interesting meeting.
Posted by: Liberalhawk   2004-3-19 1:24:43 PM  

#9  Jordan should take the west bank and dismember the Palestinian Authority (or force them to flee to Gaza). They should clean house as only Arabs can due to Arabs and they should settle the problem for good. They can complain diplomatically about the fence/wall.

Otherwise they might want to start building a fence of their own about now.
Posted by: ruprecht   2004-3-19 1:16:41 PM  

#8  Kuwait kicked the Pals out because they supported Saddam during the Kuwait occupation. Personally I don't think that's unreasonable.

Jordan kicked out the PLO after Black September but they didn't kick out the Pals. Jordan is 90% Pals with a Beduin Arab leadership ontop. That is why many Israeli's say the Pals already have a state and that now they want two.
Posted by: ruprecht   2004-3-19 1:13:11 PM  

#7  Didn't Jordan already kick the Palis out once before for misbehaviour?
Posted by: SteveS   2004-3-19 12:32:58 PM  

#6  Nobody wants them, I remember a Kuwaiti friend said her country expelled huge groups of them because their too wild and too many crimes were commited by them. They're mentally off, even in other Arab's eyes.
Posted by: CobraCommander   2004-3-19 11:38:27 AM  

#5  Maybe he just wanted Sharon to provide him with wall blue prints. :-)
Posted by: Super Hose   2004-3-19 11:31:10 AM  

#4  arik was born on a kibbutz (yup, it was a long journey from left to right for him) I doubt he eats kosher.

BTW did you know that during camp david 1 Sadat got his food from a Kosher caterer in Baltimore (Begin, IIUC, didnt care about the kashrut, old secular herutnik that he was)

BTW - Jordan has taken in plenty of Pals, and is the ONLY arab country that gave them citizenship - the kings concerns should be taken seriously.
Posted by: Liberalhawk   2004-3-19 10:45:48 AM  

#3  Chef’s nightmare - how do I make this kosher AND halal?
-----------
basically if you serve kosher food and no alcohol you've done it
Posted by: mhw   2004-3-19 10:41:43 AM  

#2  .. I don't want 'em, you can have 'em, they're too Arafat for me...
Posted by: Hyper   2004-3-19 10:02:53 AM  

#1  nobody wants these thugs - remember Black September?
Posted by: Frank G   2004-3-19 9:59:31 AM  

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