A twisted mind | Arab News ? Saudi Arabia News, Middle East News, Opinion, Economy and more.
Author: Uri Avnery
Sat, 2014-01-18 03:00
In the middle of the 1970s, Ariel Sharon asked me to arrange something for him — a meeting with Yasser Arafat. A few days before, the Israeli media had discovered that I was in regular contact with the leadership of the PLO, which was listed at the time as a terrorist organization.
I told Sharon that my PLO contacts would probably ask what he intended to propose to the Palestinians. He told me that his plan was to help the Palestinians to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy, and turn Jordan into a Palestinian state, with Arafat as its president.
“What about the West Bank?” I asked. “Once Jordan becomes Palestine, there will no longer be a conflict between two peoples, but between two states. That will be much easier to resolve. We shall find some form of partition, territorial or functional, or we shall rule the territory together.” My friends submitted the request to Arafat, who laughed it off. But he did not miss the opportunity to tell King Hussein about it. Hussein disclosed the story to a Kuwaiti newspaper, Alrai, and that’s how it came back to me.
Sharon’s plan was revolutionary at the time. Almost the entire Israeli establishment — including Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Defense Minister Shimon Peres — believed in the so-called “Jordanian option”: The idea that we must make peace with King Hussein. The Palestinians were either ignored or considered archenemies, or both.
Copyright. Link Each "Copy & Paste" to It's Source. Only paste a small to medium section of the material.
Author: Uri Avnery
Sat, 2014-01-18 03:00
In the middle of the 1970s, Ariel Sharon asked me to arrange something for him — a meeting with Yasser Arafat. A few days before, the Israeli media had discovered that I was in regular contact with the leadership of the PLO, which was listed at the time as a terrorist organization.
I told Sharon that my PLO contacts would probably ask what he intended to propose to the Palestinians. He told me that his plan was to help the Palestinians to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy, and turn Jordan into a Palestinian state, with Arafat as its president.
“What about the West Bank?” I asked. “Once Jordan becomes Palestine, there will no longer be a conflict between two peoples, but between two states. That will be much easier to resolve. We shall find some form of partition, territorial or functional, or we shall rule the territory together.” My friends submitted the request to Arafat, who laughed it off. But he did not miss the opportunity to tell King Hussein about it. Hussein disclosed the story to a Kuwaiti newspaper, Alrai, and that’s how it came back to me.
Sharon’s plan was revolutionary at the time. Almost the entire Israeli establishment — including Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Defense Minister Shimon Peres — believed in the so-called “Jordanian option”: The idea that we must make peace with King Hussein. The Palestinians were either ignored or considered archenemies, or both.
Copyright. Link Each "Copy & Paste" to It's Source. Only paste a small to medium section of the material.
Last edited by a moderator: