Israeli law lecturer calls Jordan a "puppet state"

An Israeli law lecturer has called the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan a “puppet state” which had never existed in reality or on a map and whose people are “a combination of tribes recently settled” there. In his Op-Ed piece in Yedioth Ahronoth headed “Jordan is Palestine”, Dr. Haim Misgav was also critical of King Abdullah II for claiming that he will protect his country, “militarily if necessary”, against any attempts to “transfer” Palestinians to Jordan. Misgav believes that the King will soon see a Palestinian state in Jordan.

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“Jordan,” said Misgav, is “not a nation, but a hotchpotch of tribes plus some Palestinian refugees.” As such, he added, King Abdullah is right to be concerned that his country will, “one of these days”, be the Palestinian state “the whole world is eager to see”.

The article contained a reference to the myth that the late President Arafat “wished” to push the Jews into the sea. Misgav also described the notion of “land for peace” as “a false formula” and the Oslo Accords as “one huge folly” along with “Israeli withdrawals from southern Lebanon, Gush Katif, northern Samaria, and from our Sinai communities”. To this he added his belief that it would also be a folly to establish what he calls “yet another Palestinian state west of the Jordan River”, not least because “such state would seek to unite with its sister-state across the River, and “the many Arabs in the Galilee and northern Israel would also seek to connect to their sister state”.

Misgav’s opinion piece was a response to an article in the Wall Street Journal in which King Abdullah had sought “to reassure everyone that Jordan will not be an alternative [state] for anyone”.