Jordanian King's "Red Line": No Gaza Refugees Here or in Egypt

And here I thought the West had reached the heights of folly in asking Egypt to take in a mass of radicalized Palestinians that had until a hot second ago backed Hamas. Not content with the humiliation of that rejection, Germany’s chancellor decided to hit up a friendly Sunni state on the other side of Israel for the same favor.

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You know … the one whose present king’s father got targeted for assassination by the Palestinians to whom he offered sanctuary. Twice.

Jordan’s King Abdullah II told Germany to pound sand this morning, emphasizing that the Palestinians need to fix their own problems:

The king of Jordan poured cold water on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s hopes that neighboring Arab countries could take in Palestinian refugees who are fleeing the Gaza Strip ahead of an anticipated ground offensive by the Israeli army.

The rebuff by King Abdullah II was made Tuesday morning at a press conference with Scholz following a meeting in the chancellery in Berlin, which Scholz also used to issue a warning to Iran and to Hezbollah against intervening in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

“I think I can speak here on behalf of Jordan … but also our friends in Egypt: This is a red line … no refugees to Jordan and also no refugees to Egypt,” King Abdullah said at the press conference.

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How could Germany, of all countries, ask Jordan to accept a mass of Palestinian refugees? The PLO under Yasser Arafat tried to seize power in Jordan after King Hussein offered them sanctuary following the 1967 war with Israel. After two assassination attempts, Hussein finally used armed force to push Arafat and his collection of ingrates into Lebanon through Syria, another Arafat disaster that the Palestinians called Black September.

They gave that name to its terror wing, which is why Germany in particular should recall that history. After its ejection from Jordan, the PLO and its Black September wing went on an international terror spree, attempting to force the West to stop supporting Israel. One of its most well-known operations was the attempted abduction and murder of Israeli athletes in the 1972 Munich Olympics. As in Munich, Germany (West Germany at the time, of course).

How clueless does a German chancellor have to be to ask Jordan to recreate the conditions for another Black September — especially when the Gazans are so closely aligned with Iran? Clueless enough to attempt to ask Egypt next, apparently:

The remarks come just ahead of a trip by Scholz to Israel and Egypt, where the chancellor hopes to de-escalate tensions and improve the situation for Palestinians seeking to flee the conflict zone. A main hope for Scholz and other Western leaders is that Egypt could open its border with Gaza to allow in refugees.

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Egypt’s Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has already rejected this idea, and with even more reason. As I wrote last week, Hamas sprang out of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, and the Muslim Brotherhood wants al-Sisi dead. Why in the world would anyone think that al-Sisi would allow tens of thousands of potential Muslim Brotherhood foot soldiers into his country now? If Germany or any of the other leaders in the West took even a moment to consider the precarious nature of both regimes, they’d be embarrassed to even have floated this idea.

The only country that should give refuge to the Gazans at the moment is Iran. They authored the present misery of the Gazans through their proxy Hamas. Iran won’t take them in either, though, even apart from the logistics of that kind of relocation. For one thing, the Persian Shi’ite mullahs couldn’t care less about the mainly Sunni Arabs of Gaza and the West Bank, but also they can’t afford their destabilizing presence either. They already have a restive population that the IRGC can barely contain, and that population hates the Palestinians and the way that the mullahs exploit their cause to justify their oppression.

Abdullah is right about the solution to the Palestinian issue, too. “This is a situation that has to be handled within Gaza and the West Bank,” he declared. The answer lies with the Palestinians, and it always has. Had they accepted the 1948 partition, they would never have had to live for eight decades in camps. Had they chosen to pursue peace and engagement with Israel as a final outcome, they would have had their own state decades ago, along with tons of Western investment. Instead, the Palestinians have insisted on annihilating Israel and seizing the land “from the river to the sea,” and keep adding to their misery.

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That’s why they cheered the launch of this war and supported Hamas’ goals of annihilation all along. And that’s why they’re about to cry alone at the consequences of their own actions and decisions, again.

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