Donald Trump's 'Jordanian Option' Is A Non-Starter. Here's Why

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer)
President Donald trump speaks in Emancipation Hall after the 60th Presidential Inauguration, Monday, Jan. 20, 2025, at the U.S. Capitol in Washington. (AP photo)

US president Donald Trump deserved all credit for the ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon. Apparently, the president's Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, prior to Trump assuming the presidency visited Tel Aviv. On being told that Benjamin Netanyahu would only meet him after the Sabbath (an excuse to give the IDF pursue its war aims in Gaza), Witkoff put foot down firmly saying,' Sabbath or no Sabbath. Netanyahu had to see him now. The Israeli PM yielded. The ceasefire came into effect soon after. Now president Trump has mooted the option of Gazans being 'relocated' to Jordan and Egypt. This, for all practical purposes, is a nonstarter.

First, it harks back to a proposal mooted by King Hussein of Jordan in 1972. This proposal- met with both exasperation and resistance by Palestinians and the broader Arab world- suggested that Jordan and parts of Palestine be merged. While it never saw the 'proverbial light of the day', but it appears to be raised in a new avatar. Why, the question is, is the 'Jordanian option' a nonstarter? Primarily, it subsumes the historical and legitimate aspirations into a quasi-federation that 'cleanses' their ethno-religious matrix and collapses it into a federation. Second, the post-colonial Arab state- in general terms- is an artificial construct with straddling borders that house different ethnicities, religions and denominations in an inorganic way. Power sharing, state society relations and other state craft related issues historically in most of these instances are skewed. Iraq and Syria spring to mind here as classic examples. Third, even if considered as a hypothetical, the 'Jordanian option', is a non-starter because the Arab state is not a plural construction where equal rights and voice can be guaranteed to Palestinians (in the instance of the so-called Jordanian option). This then sets the stage for indeterminate conflict in the future. Above all, at the risk of repetition, this 'option' undercuts and undermines the historical and legitimate claims of Palestinians.

Post 1948, or even predating that, from 1936, the Palestinian movement or resistance has been that of restitution. Through the evolution, ebbs and flows of the conflict, Palestinians have been focusing on combating dispossession, restitution and the right of return. Israel has combated this (mostly) through fuller occupation, and splitting the Palestinians and then claiming the absence of a 'credible interlocutor. All this has merely solidified the status quo ante, and an impasse. With the war between Palestinians and Israel grinding on since October 7 2023, with great human suffering on all sides, suddenly there is some impetus to a peace process post the ceasefire. The floating of the 'Jordanian option' not only brings a pause to the momentum but also dissipates it, taking the conflict in the direction of the 'unknown unknown'. (Obiter Dictum, one enthusiast of the 'Jordanian Option' has been Shlomo Bin Ami- the former interior minister of Israel who resigned from this position years ago on moral and ethical grounds. Professor Bin Ami then became a scholar of repute and probity writing a book that may be his magnus opus,' Scars of War and Wounds of Peace: The Israeli Arab Tragedy)

The contextual setting to the ceasefire and the so-called Jordanian option is the flux and fluidity (call in an inflection point) in world politics and international relations and the tizzy in the political bargains of the wider Middle East. Rather than viewed as a condition where an artificial paradigm can be imposed on the region and Palestinians, it must be seen as an opportunity. The opportunity lies precisely in this flux and fluidity. How to convert it into abiding and real piece constitutes the real challenge. One way would be to revive the two-state solution which Israel has only been paying lip service to while 'creating facts on the ground'.

There's a confluence of factors at work as well: the world is in the midst of a world historical moment, a constellation of other world politics related factors and an energized US presidency that seeks to refocus and reset the United States. Sitting atop this is the 47^th president of the country, Donald J Trump. He must, in the interest of durable peace , in the Middle East read proverbial tea leaves well and goad all players in the direction of a conflict resolution paradigm that redounds to the 'good' and benefit of all. To risk repetition again, the so- called Jordanian option is not that!

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