By David Singer ——Bio and Archives--April 2, 2018
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"I hope at some point the Administration recognizes and perhaps it is already quietly --that the two-state solution isn't going anywhere. If anything I would say to King Abdullah of Jordan --"Be prepared to reassert Jordanian sovereignty over part of the West Bank --negotiate with Israel". I think that's a far better outcome than the continued pursuit of a mythical --I believe --unattainable viable Palestinian state"Mattis has favoured the Obama-Kerry strategy --pointing out to the Aspen Security Forum in July 2013:
"We have got to find a way to make the two-state solution that Democrat and Republican administrations have supported, we've got to get there. And the chances for it, as the king of Jordan has pointed out, are starting to ebb because of the settlements and where they're at, are going to make it impossible to maintain the two-state option."Mattis further reasoned:
"I paid a military security price every day as the commander of CentCom because the Americans were seen as biased in support of Israel and that moderates all the moderate Arabs who want to be with us, because they can't come out publicly in support of people who don't show respect for the Arab Palestinians. So he [Secretary of State John Kerry] is right on target with what he's doing. And I just hope the protagonists want peace and a two-state solution as much as he does."
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"Bolton will soon be the second-most dangerous American."Yet Will himself had written in the Washington Post on 17 April 1987:
"May 14 will be the 30th Anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, June 6 will be the 20th anniversary of the Six Day War. The West Bank has been held by Israel longer than it had been held by Jordan, the 1967 aggressor, which ever since has presented itself as the aggrieved party. Today, as every day since 1948, the key to peace is direct negotiations between Jordan and Israel, not a committee"
"I heard you're actually the devil incarnate and I wanted to meet you,"A Mattis-Bolton accord on Jordan replacing the PLO in future negotiations with Israel will undoubtedly reinforce Trump's preparedness to make this long-overdue call. [Author's note: The cartoon - commissioned exclusively for this article --is by Yaakov Kirschen aka "Dry Bones"- one of Israel's foremost political and social commentators - whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades]
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David Singer is an Australian Lawyer, a Foundation Member of the International Analyst Network and Convenor of Jordan is Palestine International—an organization calling for sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza to be allocated between Israel and Jordan as the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine. Previous articles written by him can be found at: jordanispalestine.blogspot.com