None of the Arab countries fought on behalf of – or due to – Palestinian Arab aspirations. Therefore, they did not share with the Palestinian Arabs the spoils of war. Iraq occupied Samaria and transferred it to Jordan, which occupied Judea. In April 1950, Jordan annexed Judea & Samaria to the east bank of the Jordan River, naming it the West Bank. Egypt occupied Gaza and – just like Jordan – did not allow Palestinian nationalistic activities. Syria occupied and annexed Al-Hama. None of the ensuing Arab-Israeli wars (1956, 1967, 1969/70 and 1973) were Palestinian-driven. Furthermore, the Israel-Palestinian/PLO wars of 1982 (in Lebanon), 1987-1991 (the first Intifada) and 2000-2004 (the second Intifada) and the Israel Palestinian/Hamas wars of 2009 and 2012 (in Gaza) did not engage the Arab states militarily or financially.
During the October 1994 Israel-Jordan peace signing ceremony, top Jordanian military leaders told their Israeli counterparts that “a Palestinian state west of the Jordan River would doom the Hashemite Kingdom east of the river.”
The Arab League and the UN went along and did not raise the issue of a Palestinian state in Judea, Samaria and Gaza until 1967, when it was employed as a means to undermine the survival of the Jewish state.
In fact, the Palestinian issue has never been a chief axis of US-Israel relations. Therefore, while the two Administrations have never agreed on the Palestinian issue, their strategic cooperation has surged dramatically due to joint interests, mutual threats and shared values, which significantly transcend the Palestinian issue and the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Originally published at The Ettinger Report. / Yoram Etinger
