OPINION:
“‘The time has come,’ the Walrus said, ‘To talk of many things: Of shoes and ships, and sealing-wax, Of cabbages and kings,’” Lewis Carroll wrote in his famous poem, “The Walrus and the Carpenter.”
Oddly, that verse provides an insight into the conflict in the Middle East. After a long trek through countless scenarios purporting to provide solutions, one more implausible than the next, the time has come to speak seriously; the time has come to talk of “kings.” And the kings to which I allude are the King of Jordan and the King of Saudi Arabia.
Why? Well, it is no secret that attempts to resolve the principal point of conflict in the Middle East, the Palestinian issue, have failed spectacularly over the course of more than seven decades. Of the many proposals floated, no proposal for the resolution of the conflict has had a longer life than the “two-state solution.”
It has to be evident that today, this solution is neither viable nor likely. After the unparalleled violence of the Hamas attack on Oct. 7 – an attack that had widespread support among many Palestinians – it is implausible that Israelis would agree to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state contiguous to their own state. To most Israelis, such a state would be a prospective launching pad for more Oct. 7-like attacks.
Faced with this reality, it becomes necessary to try to find a different approach. This is where it now becomes necessary to speak of “kings.”
The first king of whom it is necessary to speak is Abdullah, the King of Jordan. Mr. Abdullah sits on the throne of an artificially-created nation conjured up by the British in 1921 and granted its independence in 1946, just two years before Israel. Today, Jordan is significantly, if not predominantly, a Palestinian entity. Indeed, Abdullah’s consort, Queen Rania, is a Palestinian and as many as 50% of the citizens of Jordan consider themselves Palestinians.
Faced with these facts, Abdullah should be intimately involved in any proposal to resolve the conflict between Israel and Palestinians. But he is not. In fact, perhaps as a life-saving matter, he has done everything possible to avoid being intimately involved in resolving the conflict. He would leave it to others, but he must not.
The other regional monarch, the King of Saudi Arabia, the protector of the holiest sites of Islam, has appeared as squeamish about the Palestinian problem as Abdullah. In fairness, it is not Salman, the King of Saudi Arabia, who runs the kingdom, but rather his son, Mohammed bin Salman or “MBS,” the king-in-waiting. Neither the actual king nor MBS has given the impression that they have any serious interest in pursuing a solution to the Palestinian situation. They would leave it to others, but they also must not.
After the long journey through violence and carnage, it’s time to speak of those “kings” who may actually hold the key to the resolution of the seemingly intractable Palestinian problem.
The truth is that Abdullah is currently king of a quasi-Palestinian state, even if he refuses to acknowledge it. He should, therefore, be primed to accept some arrangement that would have those areas in the so-called West Bank in which Palestinians predominate become a federated part of his contiguous kingdom.
It is rather evident that those portions of the West Bank, where the majority of residents do not want to be governed by Israel, should become a part of Jordan, with those residents having all the rights of citizens of Jordan and being subject to Jordanian law. Of course, for Israel to be able to prevent Islamist terrorism from emerging from those areas, any such arrangement will need to leave control of borders and defense in the hands of Israel for the foreseeable future.
The King of Jordan would then become the monarch of a bi-national nation, with a status similar to that of the king of the bi-national kingdom of Belgium. With a substantial portion of the population of Jordan-Palestine on both sides of the Jordan River being Palestinian, this kingdom can accurately become the long-awaited Palestinian state.
In order to achieve this important step, albeit just a first step, it is the other king who will need to provide his blessing, his prestige and his support. Mr. Salman of Saudi Arabia, presumably through the good offices of MBS, will need to extend his protection to his fellow royal in order to make it possible for the Jordanian solution to the Palestinian problem to take place and to be lasting.
The time has come to speak of these kings, who have the potential to counter the malign forces of Iran and its proxies and to assist in ushering in a new era in the Middle East. To a large measure, the true solution of the Palestinian problem and peace in the Middle East more generally depends upon their involvement and their willingness to take risks. Abdullah simply needs to allow some portions of the so-called West Bank to be federated with Jordan. Salman (via MBS) needs to give his backing to this arrangement and establish diplomatic relations with Israel, thereby giving cover to Abdullah and moderate Palestinians.
It will take creativity and courage for the “kings” to play their roles. But, it is high time to speak of these “kings” and to compel them to take up their responsibilities and help bring the core conflict in the Middle East to an end.
The new president of the United States, assuredly with the persuasive powers of Lewis Carroll’s walrus, might just be the one who can convincingly speak of, and to, these “kings.”
• Gerard Leval is a partner in the Washington, D.C. office of a national law firm. He is the author of Lobbying for Equality, Jacques Godard and the Struggle for Jewish Civil Rights during the French Revolution, published by HUC Press.
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