THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume IX, Issue # 68, April 17, 2007
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
SEPARATE BUT EQUAL
By Asaf Romirowsky
THE CONDITION NECESSARY FOR PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE BETWEEN PALESTINIAN ARABS & ISRAELI JEWS: THAT
PALESTINIAN SOCIETY EXPERIENCE A BREAKTHROUGH IN CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRATIC THOUGHT & VALUES, A
BREAKTHROUGH ACCEPTING THE PERMANENT EXISTENCE OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL, ACKNOWLEDGING THAT HONEST
RELATIONS BETWEEN ISRAEL & THE PALESTINIANS ARE NORMAL & NATURAL, & ALLOWING FOR THE GROWTH OF AN
ECONOMICALLY PROSPEROUS & POLITICALLY INFLUENTIAL PALESTINIAN MIDDLE CLASS
FULL STORY:
In his recent address to the U.S. Congress, King Abdullah II of Jordan dramatically quoted FDR's famous "four freedoms
speech" as a means to describe American foreign policy as freedom from fear, freedom from want, freedom of speech, and
freedom of religion. The goal of the speech was to call for greater U.S. involvement in facilitating an Israeli-Palestinian
peace process. What is significant about this call is the Palestinian conundrum that Adbullah himself faces in Jordan.
Unlike the Palestinian cause in the West Bank, Lebanon or Syria, the cause in Jordanian refugee camps is not as plastered
all over the place as in other Arab countries where Palestinians reside. Thanks in part to an efficient secret police force, the
Hashemite cult of personality remains dominant, at least in public. But Jordan's demographics continue to work against
Abdullah and his dynasty.
There are approximately three million Palestinians living in Jordan, comprising about 2% of the total population. Of these,
around 60% have Jordanian ID cards. There is a successful Palestinian upper and middle class in Jordan, but predictably an
exclusive Palestinian identity seems strongest among the approximately one million refugees without Jordanian citizenship
and among those who live in the squalid refugee camps. Politically speaking, Jordan has seen an active participation from
their Palestinians and, since 1950, every government (Cabinet) formed in Jordan included 2-4 ministers of Palestinian origin.
Moreover, Jordan once had a Palestinian Prime Minister -- Sulaiman al–Nabulsi in the Summer of 1956.
As in many places in the Muslim world, as well as in places with substantial Muslim minorities, it is the younger generation
of Palestinians in Jordan that is becoming more and more Islamist in its ideology, while maintaining a strong Palestinian
identity. Ominously, we are hearing more cries for an intifada from them on a daily basis.
In practice, all factions within Palestinian society saw Arafat as their leader for many years. The socalled "cohesiveness"
amongst Palestinians is now non-existent and Palestinians are now divided more than ever by region, by tribe and clan,
and by religious outlook. The acrimony between Palestinians that Arafat managed to paper over is now on display as a civil
war develops in the Gaza Strip. As journalist Nicholas Jubber writes, "the Gaza Strip and the West Bank are divided by their
unequal economies, distinct dialects, and cultural animosities forged by their pre-1967 experiences under separate regimes
— Nasser's Egypt and King Hussein's Jordan." In terms of an extended social network, West Bankers do not rely on their
"Palestinian brothers" in Gaza, but, rather, on their families and friends in Jordan. And Gazans do the same thing with Egypt.
From a political point of view, the administrative infrastructure that the Egyptians left when the Gaza Strip was captured in
1967 was very different from the one left by the Jordanians. When Rashad al-Shawwa, a Gaza businessman, was appointed
by Israel as the new Mayor in the Summer of 1971, he proposed to implement King Hussein's "United Arab Kingdom," a
plan to unite Gaza and the West Bank under one governing system. In turn, Shawwa was severely criticized for even
putting forth the idea. As Nicholas Jubber notes, "heavy Jordanian investment in the West Bank helped to establish a
better system of infrastructure there, and the economy is more advanced. Among the people of Gaza, accusations about the
alleged snobbery of West Bank Palestinians are common." These conditions were not significantly changed during the
decades of direct Israeli rule.
More ancient animosities are also on display. The on-going intifada revived tribal rivalries which originated in the days
when the leading families of Jerusalem and Hebron, Nashashibis, Hussainis and Khalidis, controlled the agenda for all of
Ottoman and British Palestine. As Jonathan Schanzer writes, "despite a recent flood of books and articles attesting to
long-standing patriotism, the Palestinian Arab community has a longer tradition of factionalism and disunity. Indeed, it was
tribalism and clan rivalries that rendered the Palestinian nationalist movement ineffectual against the Zionist movement
during the first half of the 20th century." With the failure of national politics, these same families have returned as leading
institutions for Palestinians. Success means choosing the right team.
The battles in the streets of Gaza today illustrate the tensions between secularism and religion in the Palestinian areas
arena, a microcosm of the tensions afflicting the entire Islamic world. Arafat emerged as a secular leader precisely during
the heyday of other nationalist figures like Nasser and Saddam Hussein. The Iranian Revolution changed this irrevocably,
and helped trigger Islamic revivals that have undone or threaten to undo secular regimes, mostly tyrannical, throughout the
Muslim and Arab worlds. Among Palestinians the choices are stark. Hamas represents the Islamist agenda and Fatah
represents the secular lifestyle most Palestinians embraced during the later 20th Century. But the Palestinian example
shows that the game is basically over. The newly created Palestinian Unity government sees secular Fatah leader Abbas
reduced to parity or worse with his Hamas rival Khaled Mashal. The clever wording of the document allows both Hamas
and Fatah to claim that neither party had totally abandoned its traditional position. And the oblique tone was also
intended to appease the Americans and Europeans. After all, the main goal of the new coalition is to get the international
community to resume the flow of financial aid. In this, it has evidently been successful.
True coexistence between Palestinians under Hamas/Fatah and Israelis won't happen until Palestinian society experiences
a breakthrough in constitutional democratic thought and values, one that accepts Israel's permanence and also allows for
a middle class to grow, acknowledging that honest relations between Israel and Palestinians are normal and natural.
Although Jordan under Abdullah could serve as a positive example for how Palestinians could become assimilated in an
Arab country, the desire to keep the Palestinians in their dire state is greater. In the end, the ongoing factional violence,
which includes kidnappings and assassinations, now threatens to return the streets of Gaza to a state of war. And the
socalled unity government is just a tactical truce to be held until one party believes unity no longer serves its interests.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Israel -- The Israeli-Arab Conflict
Middle East -- Arabs, Arab States,
& Their Middle Eastern Neighbors
Egypt, Arabs, & the Middle East
American Foreign Policy -- The Middle East
Islamism & Jihadism -- Radical Islam & Islamic Terrorism
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
International Politics & World Disorder:
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. National Security Strategy
Asaf Romirowsky is a Campus Watch associate fellow for the Middle East Forum and the Manager of Israel & Middle
East Affairs for the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia.
The foregoing article by Asaf Romirowsky was originally published in Front Page Magazine, April 17, 2007, and
can be found on the Internet website maintained by the Middle East Forum.
Republished with Permission of the Middle East Forum
Reprinted from the Middle East Forum News
mefnews@meforum.org (MEF NEWS)
April 17, 2007
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THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
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Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
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