by Hana Salik

Created on: April 19, 2008   Last Updated: April 20, 2008

With the upcoming visit of President Bush to the Middle East the subject of a Palestinian state is again on the agenda. One important question regarding the establishment of a Palestinian state is whether it is an interest of any party to have such a state. The parties which will be most affected by the creation of a Palestinian state, other than the Palestinians themselves, are clearly the countries which will be its neighbors if it is ever created. This includes first of all Israel and then Egypt and Jordan, both of which will border that new state. What are their interests regarding a Palestinian state? Officially both of these countries support the creation of a Palestinian state, but is it really in their best interest to have one?

First, Jordan. The Emirate of Transjordan was founded on April 11, 1921 by Great Britain and was given to the Hashemite family headed by Emir Abdallah as a reward for their support of Britain during World War I. It became the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan upon formal independence from Britain in 1946 when the Emir Abdallah became King Abdallah. It has been under the Hashemite rule ever since. The majority of Jordanians today were originally Palestinians. This is an undisputable fact. In addition, Jordan is the country with the largest Palestinian population. Theoretically, therefore, Jordan should have been the Palestinian state, but the reality is quite different. Between 1948 and 1967 Jordan included what is known today as the West Bank and had under its rule many more Palestinians than it does today. The relations between those Palestinians and Jordan were far from peaceful. Almost every Friday (the Moslem day of prayer) there were clashes in East Jerusalem (which is the center of the West Bank) between the Jordanian military and the Palestinians. These clashes culminated in the assassination in 1951 of King Abdallah by Palestinians who suspected him of conducting secret peace negotiations with Israel. After the Arab defeat in 1967 the West Bank became under Israeli rule and it still is today. In 1970 the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) gathered enough power to pose a threat to the regime of King Hussein (King Abdallah's grandson) in Jordan. At the same time Syria, Jordan's neighbor to the north, concentrated its forces along the Jordanian border and threatened to unite with the PLO and take over the country. The Jordanian military, at King Hussein's command, responded with fury and literally slaughtered tens of thousands

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