East Palestine

We in the west have generallybeen respectful to the Jordanian government for a long time, just as we havebeen as respectful to the Saudi government. Yet both are clearly bad news in the long term and for the exact samereason.  They are traditionalaristocracies shored up by the bought support of a minority, just as Iraq.  That support is stable because thealternative is to hang together.

The sudden discovery here is thatthe removal of the Hashemite kingship by a Palestinian based majority rule thatthen provided a Palestinian homeland East of the Jordan for all Palestinians couldwell totally defuse what has now lasted for sixty years.  The writer makes the argument that this isthe natural solution and it may well be.

The write also makes the argumentthat the natural boundary needs to be the Jordan.  He also makes the point that this is likelyto be welcomed by West Bank residents providedthey do not face removal as would occur if a war broke out.

A Voice of Reason from an Arab Dissident

Posted by Yoel Meltzer on May 6th, 2011 and filedunder Daily Mailer, FrontPage. You can follow any responsesto this entry through the RSS2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently notallowed.

http://frontpagemag.com/2011/05/06/a-voice-of-reason-from-an-arab-dissident/

Introduction: The following is an interview with Mudar Zahran, aPalestinian Jordanian and former political insider who fled Jordan and currently resides in England. In an open and honest manner, Mudar briefly discusses the current unrest inJordan, the various players in Jordan and their links to Islamic groups, hisvision of a Palestinian state in Jordan as opposed to the two-state solution,his attempts at effecting change and the subsequent threats against him.

Yoel Meltzer: Like most Arab countries, protests are also takingplace in Jordan. According to what I’ve read the king is claiming that the Muslim Brotherhood(MB) is responsible for the protests.  Is this true?

Mudar Zahran: Not at all. A story was reported in the Jerusalem Post and itdismissed such a claim.  The organizers of the events are mostly tribalJordanians calling for less power for the king.

YM: So the MB is not involved at all?

MZ: The MB represents just a small fraction of the protesters. Most of those involved are tribal elders or people representing tribal factionsand very, very few Palestinians.  What the king is doing is exactly whatColonel Gaddafi is doing.  Just as Gaddafi is claiming that he is fightingAl-Qaeda when he is actually fighting rebels who hate his oppressive rule, sotoo Abdullah and his media, and lately his prime minister, are all insistingthe protesters are MB members.

YM: But I thought the Bedouin tribes were allies of the king?

MZ: They are.  Yet he has fed them and empowered them to thepoint where they do not want him any more.  They want a constitutionalmonarchy as was referred to in a 1920 convention.  In that year KingAbdullah’s grandfather met with tribal leaders of what was then Eastern Palestine and agreed with them to mutually rulethe country.  They want that restored so that they become partners in hisrule, or nearly rulers themselves.  If not, they shall revolt.  Theyhave been saying that openly.

YM: Isn’t Jordanalready a constitutional monarchy?

MZ: Jordanclaims to be a constitutional monarchy while it is by all means adictatorship.  A constitutional monarchy is where the king reigns but doesnot run the country, as is the case in the UK,Sweden, Norway andothers.  In Jordanthe king has all the authority with zero accountability.

In reality Jordanis a dictatorship headed by a slick-dressing dictator who speaks perfectEnglish, as opposed to Saddam’s military uniform or Assad’s bad English.

YM: Regarding the current protests in Jordan, are they being attended bylarge crowds or do most people choose to stay away?

MZ: Most Palestinians, who are the majority, are too afraid to getinvolved.  Even the Washington Institute and the Jerusalem Post have confirmed that mostPalestinians are not participating.  While in other Arab countries theprotesters are facing their own cousins behind the police guns and clubs, in Jordanthe Palestinians would be facing the ruthless Bedouins who have beenterrorizing them since 1970.

This is mainly an affair between the king and the tribes.

YM: In your opinion, will the changes that the tribes arerequesting have a positive effect on the Palestinians?

MZ: Just read their statements.  The latest one was signed by36 of their leaders calling for the expelling of the Palestinians or takingaway their passports.  Some even called for repossessing the property ofPalestinians and several called for “re-establishing Israel as an enemy state.”

YM: Are they more anti-Israel than the king?

MZ: You bet.  The king is just a puppet in their hand andthat is why he has been taking an anti-Palestinian and an anti-Israeli stancesince he came to power.

YM: So which would you prefer, the king continuing as is or thechanges that the tribes want?

MZ: The king cannot continue and the tribes will oust him sooneror later.  His father remained their king only because he fed them so muchand gave them unbelievable privileges even according to Americanstandards.  The present king does not have the money to do this and theirnumbers have exceeded the country’s resources.  Economically speaking Jordan, which heavily depends on excessivetaxation of its Palestinians, will not have the resources to pay any more ofthe privileges and benefits the tribesmen get in Jordan.  So sooner or laterthey will oust him, probably sooner more than later.  The result will behostile uncontrollable tribes in Jordan who are playing with thecountry in an unruly manner just like their ancestors did for thousands ofyears.  In the Bedouin culture stealing someone else’s wealth and land isnot a shame, in fact it is a matter of honor…they call it Ghazou and Khawa.

YM: Almost sounds like Afghanistan

MZ: Very much so, only the Bedouins in Jordan are well armed and welltrained with fine American weapons.  For some unknown reason Jordan spends40 percent of its budget on military and building an army.

YM: Are the tribes close to the MB or to other groups outside of Jordansuch as Al-Qaeda or Hezbollah?

MZ: The MB’s leadership is mostly tribal. Its senior leaders areZaki Bani Rushaid, Salim Flahat and Abdul Majid Thubnibat.  Each one ofthem is a Bedouin and not a Palestinian and each one was present at the lastprotest which ended up violently.  Zaki Bani Rushaid, who is the strongestleader within the MB, was a former office manager of Khaled Meshaal (thepolitical leader of Hamas).

The southern part of Jordanis closely and heavily connected to Al-Qaeda.  Many tribesmen believe inSalafi methodology and lately they have been parading around the southern cityof Maan, atribal stronghold, waving their own flags and walking around with their fineM-16s.  Yet for some reason none of this has made it to the western media.

YM: What is “Salafi methodology”?

MZ: Salafi methodology is the orthodox denomination inIslam.  It is the ideology that Osama bin Laden belongs too as didZarqawi, a Jordanian terrorist who was the chief Al-Qaeda operator in Iraquntil shortly before he was killed.  Also connected to Salafi was Hammamal-Balawi, the suicide bomber who killed 7 CIA officers in Afghanistan in the 2009 Khostbombing.

Trying to Establish Peace in the Wrong Geographical Location

YM: As you know, later this year the Palestinians intend ondeclaring a state.  Although personally you believe that Jordan should be this Palestinian state, Abbasis pushing for a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria.  What do you think about this?

MZ: I believe Jordanis the eastern side of Palestine and that theJordan River should be a good fence between Israeland Jordan. What Abbas is going to do is comedy evolving into Saturday Night Live sponsoredby the UN.  What state Mr. Abbas?  What state when most Palestinians,including 70 percent of Palestinians in Jerusalem,would rather be under Israeli rule?  Mr. Abbas is repaying those Arabstates who finance his authority and who do not want to see the Palestiniansand the Israelis enjoying peace.

The question is, are the Israelis that weak?  In any normalcountry the Itamar massacre would send shock waves of reality.  Have Iseen any Israeli politician, even so-called right-wingers like FM Lieberman,speak openly of putting the Palestinians back in their homeland?

YM: Your words are very powerful.  The problems in Israel are deepand complex.  Putting them aside for a moment, the current problem is thatAbbas going to the UN has serious repercussions.  Whether it’s approvalfrom the Security Council or from the General Assembly, either way it’ssomething that carries a lot of weight. From there it might be relatively easyto call for sanctions against Israelif it fails to comply and remove its citizens and army from the new Palestinianstate in Judea and Samaria.

MZ: It seems that Mr. Abbas’s adventures will lead the region intoa massive war.  Although I doubt the USand Israel’s other friendswould approve a UN resolution calling for sanctions against Israel, nonetheless there will be more headachesand more trouble for Israel. More importantly, I believe all of this is the result of trying to establishpeace in the wrong geographical location.  Imagine if the pressure hadalways been to share historical Palestinewhere we get two thirds and you get one third – us across the river and you onthe other side.

Abbas’ statehood stunt is reckless and will eventually lead the regioninto a massive war that might even produce WWIII.

Such a move is also harmful to the Palestinians since it can give Israelevery legitimate reason to sever ties for good with the Palestinians.  Israel is theonly country that allows them to accept and take jobs and it is theirtransportation and trade outlet.  Only Abbas will benefit from such amove.  He is following in the footsteps of Hamas who only wanted to ruleand didn’t care if the Palestinians starved.  The same is going to happenwith Mr. Abbas.

By the way, his seeking a state is also against the Oslo agreement.  Hence it’s about timethat Israelgets real and revises its agreement.  Israel needs to decide that thePalestinians can establish their own state across the river since any Palestinianstatehood between the sea and the river will only lead to more wars and moretroubles.

However, keep in mind that all of this is happening because one family,the Hashemites, want to keep controlling Eastern Palestine. This is absurd.

YM: I’m not sure if it’s only because of the Hashemites but thatcertainly is part of it.  Whatever may have been in the past, today mostof the world “buys” the Palestinian story and Israel is increasingly beingslandered as a “horrible occupier.”  Just recently was the 7th annual “IsraelApartheid Week” in colleges throughout the West.  Can the trend of theworld be changed in order to stop, as you said, “trying to establish peace inthe wrong geographical location”?

Efforts to Change the Entrenched Point of View

MZ: True, it is not only because of the Hashemites yet itcertainly is partly due to their presence.  Were the Hashemites not rulingthe eastern part of Palestine then thePalestinians already would have had a country for sixty years and nobody wouldhave pressured Israelto give away its land.  Yet this is not the case and the Hashemites areruling the place and constantly telling the Palestinians they are merelyrefugees.