"...Can you explain how Arab Palestinians who were born and raised among families that have lived between the River and the sea for generations are Jordanian?..."
Sure, George, no problem.
"...
Jordan formally annexed the West Bank and East Jerusalem on April 24, 1950, giving all residents automatic Jordanian citizenship. West Bank residents had already received the right to claim Jordanian citizenship in December 1949..."
Jordanian occupation of the West Bank - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
When the 1967 Six-Day War began, the Israelis pleaded with the Jordanians NOT to join their Arab neighbors in attacking Israel, but, on Day Two, Jordan attacked anyway.
The Israelis kicked their asses, and Jordan lost the West Bank as a result of that warfare.
The Jordanians should have evacuated their citizens back onto Jordanian territory afterwards.
THAT is how West Bankers (actually, all Palestinians living between River and Sea) are actually Jordanian citizens - by declaration of the Jordanians themselves, and by acceptance of that citizenship (at the time) of the West Bankers and Gazans.
Hope that helps.
"...Why is it only Jews are afraid of free elections contested between roughly equal numbers of Arabs and Jews currently living in historical Palestine?"
Because there is a very good chance that the Jews would be out-voted and therefore lose control of their newly-recaptured country.
They have waited 1900 years to take it back, and they finally managed to do so after 1948.
They control the land, and they have the military muscle to enforce their will.
You simply HAVE to get over this odd insistence upon everything being 'fair'; it really does impede a practical understanding of 'what is'.
It is 'not fair' that the Palestinians are being squeezed off their lands and into Jordan and Lebanon.
But the Jews have had 1900 years of 'not fair' and during all that time nobody gave a rat's ass about them, so, now, it's their turn to return the favor, and the Muslim-Arab Palestinians drew the short straw, and were standing in the way.
The 65-year-old Troubles there are merely the long, drawn-out process of Expelling the Arabs to make room for the Jews.
The way the Jews and much of the rest of the world figure it, the Holy Land belonged to the Jews longer than anybody else, Jewish ownership of the Holy Land is embedded within the myth and legends and scripture of all three 'Peoples and Religions of the Book', they've had 1900 years of unspeakable suffering, they deserve a break and a place of their own, the Muslim-Arabs of Palestine have plenty of other neighboring lands to go to, to live amongst ethnic kin and co-religionists, and the Jews have nowhere else to go, as a People.
So the Jews get a lot more lattitude with regard to the Holy Land than anybody else would get in any other part of the world, by today's standards.
It's not 'fair', but it's the way things are, and the way things are likely to remain, for a very long time to come.
The Palestinians have been pissing upwind for 65 years now.
It's time for them to realize the futility of their position, pack up, and leave, to build better and happier lives for themselves, someplace else where they're actually wanted.
It's what happens to the Losers in a conflict, sometimes.
It ain't 'pretty', but it is Reality.
