Alan Johnston Follow Up II

I have been posting a lot about the BBC's man kidnapped in Gaza.

Now I know why.

From Newsweek Magazine:-

Recent weeks have seen further fighting on the streets of Gaza.

Do you see any grounds for hope?

It is very difficult to make peace when there are such deep divisions in the Palestinian camp. It's really important to hang on to one statistic.

Even if Israel were to withdraw from every inch of the West Bank and Gaza, that would leave the Palestinians with just 22 percent of the land between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean Sea.

Obviously, selling that to the Palestinian people is difficult.

Allan, lad, its sure is important to hang on to one statistic. In 1922, the then-"Palestinians" were awarded 75% of the original Palestine Mandate. A Saudi Arabian refugee called Abdullah, first an Emir and then a King, set up something fictitious and artificial and called it the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. In 1949, the Arabs who still thought of themselves as "Palestinians" accepted his rule.

1948 November Jericho conference calls for Jordanian annexation of West Bank.

Source

On 25 April 1949 the king officially changed the name of his kingdom, henceforth to be known as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Almost one year later, having secured the support of Great Britain (albeit qualified--Great Britain did not recognize the incorporation of East Jerusalem, maintaining that it ought to be part of a corpus separatum, an international enclave), King Abdullah went one step further. On 24 April 1950 the Jordan House of Deputies and House of Notables, in a joint session, adopted a resolution declaring "complete unity between the two sides of the Jordan and their union in one state...at whose head reigns King Abdullah Ibn al Hussain, on a basis of constitutional representative government and equality of the rights and duties of all citizens."

Source

So, you see Allan, that 22% you are bandying about is a fiction. It is Arab propaganda. You can't deal with the "Palestine Question" by relating only to the territory west of the Jordan River. In 1947, the UN granted the resident Arabs a state in that area but they refused it. Not only did they refuse it, they sought to deny the Jews a state in any geographical area west of the Jordan. The area east of the Jordan River, you and everyone else bamboozled by the Arabs ignore and assume it isn't part of the "Palestine Question". But it is.

You've been hanged on the wrong statistic.

But don't worry, dear chap, we won't kidnap you over the issue.