However, there is another important factor that always seems to get left out of all "two state solution" discussions. It is the fact that there already is a Palestinian state so what they are really talking about is a "three state solution." There is a country called Jordan bordering Israel on the east which is, in reality, a Palestinian state.
Remember the history after World War I, when the land area of what is now both Israel and Jordan was designated as a "British mandate" controlled by England. England originally decided to give all of this land to the Jewish people for the establishment of a Jewish state and a restored homeland for the Jews. But then England changed their plans and decided to give all the land east of the Jordan River to the Arabs and only the one-fourth of the land west of the river to the Jews.
Then, somehow, the Saudi Arabians talked England into giving the Saudi Hashemite Arabs control over the Arab area, and they installed a Hashemite king. They gave the land the name of Trans-Jordan, but later changed it to Jordan. Now, of course, the Hashemites and their king are still in control of Jordan, but they are only a small part of the population. The largest ethnic group of the country is the so-called Palestinian Arabs, who are also the original occupiers of the land. King Abdullah claims that the Palestinians make up only 43 percent of the population, but a 2007 United Nations report stated that at least two-thirds of Jordan''s people were of Palestinian origin.
So far, obviously, the Hashemite kingdom has weathered the storm that has swept across much of the Middle East, but it is also obvious that the relative calm is only on the surface. There have been a few suppressed, small scale anti-government uprisings recently, when the Palestinians expressed a profound hatred for the Hashemites. They definitely view them as intruders rather than as legitimate rulers. This makes a regime change in Jordan quite likely, and with the atmosphere in the Middle East what it is, it may possibly happen sooner rather than later. Such a regime change would not only topple another Muslim Arab autocrat, but it would also open the door to a viable "two state solution," with the Palestinian state of Jordan.
In most countries with human rights violations, vulnerable minorities are the typical victims. But we have learned that this is not the case in Jordan, where the Palestinian majority is discriminated against by the ruling Hashemite dynasty. The Jordanian Palestinians are encumbered by high taxes, and they get passed over for the better government jobs as well as for military and police service positions.
The Hashemite discriminatory practices against the Palestinians have been largely overlooked by the West. Perhaps the West fears that if the Hashemites are toppled, Jordan might be taken over by more jihadist minded Muslims, who might turn Jordan into a springboard for terrorist attacks against Israel. It is also possible that the oppressive Muslim Brotherhood might become rulers of Jordan, as they are now in Egypt.
It seems that both Israel and the United States have chosen to accept the Hashemite regime as it is preferring the “devil they know to the devil they don''t know.” The current picture, however, suggests that the devil they think they know is in deep trouble.
So it seems that the Palestinians in Jordan might be a bomb waiting to explode, especially as they watch their fellow Arabs rebelling against other autocratic leaders. And if the Palestinians do successfully rise up against the Hashemite Jordanian government, we will probably see a Palestinian state of Jordan and doesn''t this seem to be a more logical location for a Palestinian state than on Israel''s soil?