Observation: Palestinian Confederation With Jordan - Profound Error
Dr. Aaron Lerner 3 September, 2018

For years "Palestinian Confederation With Jordan" has been blurted out as a
"solution" by various members of the national camp.

I say "blurted out" because for the life of me I can't believe that these
people actually put any thought into the idea.

Supporting the idea is wrong both from a practical and philosophical level.

On a practical level it means creating a platform for a non-Israeli
sovereignty this side of the Jordan River.

Even if you think that it would be fantastic for the Hashemite Kingdom of
Jordan to somehow extend its sovereignty to the outskirts of Netanya and
Kfar Sava it would be sheer folly to risk our future on the bet that the
current leadership in Jordan will remain in power in perpetuity.

Curiously,. some of the very same people who have pitched "Jordan is
Palestine" in the past also kibitz about a Palestinian-Jordanian
confederation.

The confederation idea is usually raised as a device that would enable
Palestinians to vote for the parliament of a sovereign state - in this case
Jordan.

This is a self defeating move as it implies conceding that the Palestinian's
right to self determination cannot be realized in an autonomy.

Only the radicals took this position when we first started down the Oslo
path.

"We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which
will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule
of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be
a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the
West Bank. We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state,
and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its
authority."

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in his last policy address to the Knesset on
October 5, 1995 before the vote to ratify the Israel-Palestinian Interim
Agreement.

We can ill afford "solutions" that hinge on best case scenarios.

After all, we live in anything but a best scenario world.
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