The Hashemite Regime

It's inconvenient for all of those pundits who would push off the Palestinian problem (that is to say, administration of a nominal Palestinian "state") on Jordan that Jordan really, really does not want the headache. Several decades ago, then-King Hussein rid himself of the Palestinian problem because he feared for the stability of the Hashemite regime.

Defense-policy analyst Frank Gaffney reminds us of that little problem of regime stability in this column:

It is tragically ironic that such a "Palestine" will pose a threat not only to Israel but to Jordan. After all, Jordan is not only an Arab state but a Palestinian one; the vast majority of its population is made up not of Hashemites but Palestinians. It is predictable that at some point, if Mr. Bush's vision is realized, an effort will be made to forge a single nation to include all the people of "Palestine" (doubtless appealing as well to Israel's Arab citizens).

Pushing the Palestinian problem off on Jordan makes for fun one-line punditry, of course, even if it ignores several decades of reality in the region.

[Posted at 21:17 CST on 04/30/02] [Link]