Jordan's king urges U.S. Jewish leaders to back two-state solution
'Israel should choose between peace and recognition and sticking to their fortress mentality.'
By DPA Tags: AIPAC Jordan king Israel news Middle East peaceJordan's King Abdullah II on Monday appealed to the Jewish community in the United States to support the two-state vision, saying Israel should choose between peace and continuing to live with the "fortress mentality."
The monarch made the remarks during a meeting with a delegation representing the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), currently on a visit to Jordan, according to a royal court statement.
"The king underscored the importance of support by all parties, including the U.S. Jewish organizations, for current efforts aimed at accomplishing the two-state solution which represents the cornerstone for peace and guarantees the rights of all parties in the region," the statement said.
"Israel should choose between peace that ensures its security and recognition in accordance with the Arab peace initiative and sticking to the fortress mentality in a region that faces the potential of continuous conflicts," the monarch was quoted as telling the AIPAC delegation.
The Arab peace plan offers Israel full recognition by all Arab states if it quits all territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, including East Jerusalem, and accepts the setting up of an independent Palestinian state with the June 1967 borders.
King Abdullah warned that "the world and the region were approaching a crucial point concerning the Middle East peace, when the alternative for peace will be the exacerbation of conflicts with all parties paying the price."
He stressed the importance of the "leading role" that should be played by the United States for relaunching the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian from the point they reached.
Jordan, the Palestinian Authority and other Arab countries have set Israel's freeze of all settlements in East Jerusalem and the West Bank as a pre-requisite for going back to the negotiating table, but the current rightwing Israeli government has adamantly rejected that condition.
Responding to a question, the Jordanian head of state expressed Jordan's "rejection" of any military action against Iran. He called for "dialogue" as the only channel for resolving the dispute over the Iranian nuclear file, the royal court statement said.
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A year ago, Obama and Peres were praising the Saudi 2002 strategy for peace. Now with Netanyahu in power, the plan has been cast aside and both Peres and Obama have lost the courage to push forward with a just peace. Settlements and the greed demonstrated by their promoters are the barrier to peace. Israeli treatment of Palestinians is dehumanizing. It is unfortunate there are no world leaders that have the courage to speak honestly to Israeli leadership and assist the Palestinians.
King Abdullah II of Jordan disingenuously calls for a "two-state" solution, when that situation already exists today! Three/quarters of historic Palestine is currently occupied by the relatively recently invented state of Jordan. Creating another Palestinian state on the West Bank when a Palestinian state already exists on the Jordanian-Occupied East Bank would create a THIRD state to share this territory. King Abdullah II desperately wants to avoid becoming King Abdullah I. His great-grandfather - Abdullah I, after whom he is named - was assassinated by Palestinians for the horrible crime of dealing with "the Jews". The current monarch doesn't want to die the same way. On the other hand, Jordan much prefers a border with Israel than a border with "Palestine", which is sure to result in internal turmoil and eventually war. So he's choosing the easier route: blame everything on Israel instead of the Pal Authority. If only Abdullah II was as honorable as his father, King Hussein.