The West Bank, having been subjected to sabotage and fragmentation, is becoming a problem for Israel today, prompting some factions to put Jordan at the forefront on the basis of lifting the burden off Israel, according to the proposal recently put forward and laid on the table by Avigdor Lieberman—though this is not the only vision for a Jordanian role in the West Bank.
Lieberman wants this to happen in Areas "A" and "B," which make up less than 40% of the West Bank's area, as Israel assumes Area "C" is already a settled issue. Thus, from Israel's perspective, Jordan would become an administrative agent in solving the problem created by the occupation's practices, rather than a partner in any settlement that could lead to sustainable peace.
From historical experience in Israeli politics, this proposal falls under a policy of entrapping Jordan that is similar in essence to what happened with the Palestinian National Authority, while differing in details. Jordan is fully aware of this, and even if the prospects for the two-state solution diminish, it will not participate in legitimizing or facilitating any solutions to the demographic dilemma facing Israel. Should the occupation have to physically return, Jordan will also continue its policy, seeing no other possible and acceptable solution, namely the existence of a Palestinian state according to the visions upon which post-1967 peace proposals were founded, and based on the Arab and international consensuses associated with that phase.
This does not mean that Jordan lives outside history and its developments, but it is not prepared to pay the bills of others—neither in Israel nor elsewhere—where miscalculations led to the establishment of the Israeli expansionist space. Jordan prefers to return to the frankness of confronting the occupation on the ground and the resulting pressures, which remain less costly than participating in serving the solutions envisioned by Israel and sought to be implemented through the imposition of a fait accompli, as if Jordan were merely an electoral file among Israeli parties rather than a country that has long shouldered its responsibilities toward the Palestinian cause and the rights of the Palestinian people.
