Tit for Tat

In today's Jerusalem Post, Jordan's new ambassador, Ma'aruf Bakhit, wished that the Israelis hear from him words of wisdom.
http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1109042630002

He wanted that we Israelis should know "one thing" and that one thing is that we must "differentiate between recognizing the right of return and implementing the right of return."

If only I could, I would take out a half page in that journal to ask the Ambassador if he would agree that Israel, too, could ask our neighbor King Abdullah to recognize in principle the right of Israelis to the tribal portions of Reuven, Gad and half of the tribe of Menassheh.

This area not only has Biblical roots, confirmed by archeology but the Talmud also includes this area, Ever HaYarden (TransJordan), as part of the Jewish homeland. Jews lived there, albeit in small numbers, even after the destruction of the Second Temple.

In 1920, the San Remo Conference and in 1922, the Supreme Council of the League of Nations, both institutions whose decisions carry the weight of "international law", awarded to the Jews that same area of the historic Land of Israel to be incorporated into the reconstituted Jewish homeland. Unfortunately, Great Britain excluded the territory from Jewish settlement activities.

However, if reciprocity is a standard of relations between Jordan and Israel, and it indeed should be, well, what Bakhit asks of Israel, Israel should be allowed to ask of Jordan.

Of course, the fact that the geography in question just happens to be where the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan is located shouldn't prove to difficult a reality for Bakhit and his King to accept.

Or should it?