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PARTISAN REVLEW
EK:
Do they do much of that?
TK: A little here or there.They know that they can't do it so they
don't. On the whole, their press is anti-Israel. This is their privilege. So
they have advantages. They can travel to any country. They have the
choice of remaining Jordanians, of not becoming Israelis. All over Eu–
rope, lines were drawn and you had to accept the citizenship you got.
So, of course they are a minority. But, look, every conqueror did what
he wanted. When the Romans came they destroyed the Temple When
the Christians came, they turned all the mosques into churches; when the
Muslims returned, they turned all the churches into mosques. We found
fifty-eight synagogues destroyed when we returned to the Old City after
the '67 war. But Israel broke with tradition. Desite its being our holiest
place, we left the Temple Mount in their possession - until the Messiah
will come and decide.
EK:
When will that be?
TK: Who knows? Whenever he comes, he comes. But not everybody is
happy. Some nationalists, a small minority, would like to build a temple
again now. You have more Moslems praying on the Temple Mount
now than you ever had in Jordanian times or any other time. I know
people don't say this to the Arabs, I do. They want their own govern–
ment, and Jerusalem as their capital. But why didn't they build it before?
Why did they neglect Jerusalem to the terrible extent they did? Today
they haven't got as much as I would like them to have. We should have
done more. But we did a lot.
EK:
I heard that one reason why they're against settlments in the terri–
tories has to do with water. Is that so? What do you think about the
settlement policy?
TK: I think we shouldn't try to rule over a million plus Arabs. That is
more to our detriment than anything else. That this is contributing to
our security is a wrong concept. For example, in Lebanon, you had a
Christian enclave until the twenties. Then the French came, and together
with the Christians, they were fully convinced that they ould rule
forever. They didn't. They became a minority, and you see the results
today. I think to rule a million seven hundred thousand Arabs is fatal for
the fate of Israel.
EK:
So are you for giving back the West Bank?
