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PARTISAN REVIEW
they have influence on Arafat or his possible successors? Is there the
possibility that they may effectively influence a settlement?
Conor Cruise O'Brien:
I don't think they have any influence over the peo–
ple on the ground . People like Hamas are not permeable to any influences.
They are not merely doing the damage but have the popular backing on
the ground, and no move from outside is going to change that.
David
Pryce-Jones:
I think that one must get firmly into one's head that
the Palestinians are in the unfortunate position of being despised by all
the Arabs . They are despised because in 1948 they fled their country.
They didn't stand up for themselves, and they've made a nuisance of
themselves ever since. So the Saudis back the Palestinian state, because
they want to get rid of the Palestinians. They would like to throw all the
Palestinians that are in Saudi Arabia back out. We saw how the
Kuwaitis threw the whole lot out in the Gulf War. The Palestinians are
not accepted in any single country of the Middle East except Jordan.
Now Jordan is in a particularly difficult position. The official figure is
that about
60
percent of the population of Jordan is Palestinian, but it's
probably a lot higher than that-it may even be 75 percent. Everybody
is frightened of what used to be called the Jordanian option, which is
that the Palestinians will take over Jordan, and Arafat's state will merge
with a Palestinian Jordan and the Hashemites in Jordan will suffer the
fate of the Hashemites in Iraq-they'll all be beaten to death.
It
would
not be a good plan in the eyes of the present Hashemites. So, King
Abdullah is in Washington saying, "For God's sake, save me." I remem–
ber being once in the headquarters of the West Bank, with a command–
ing general who told me that he had King Hussein on the telephone (this
was many years ago) saying "For God's sake, what's the point of hav–
ing an air force if you don't flatten Nablus?" That is how they look
upon the Palestinians. The idea of Arab solidarity and Arab brother–
hood is an utter figment . Now the Egyptians are frightened, in case
things get out of control and there is a war. The Syrians are probably
the same . We don't hear enough about Syria to be able to judge it, but
it seems as if the Syrians have not been able to resupply their army in
the way the Egyptians have. The Egyptians could be a serious fighting
force, which I think the Syrians would not be, but if there were a war,
it would threaten the Syrian regime and Mubarak, and they wouldn't
want to join in. Now the Saudis, after all these years, have produced a
land-for-peace plan as though this were a novelty. In 1967, if you
remember, the Arabs said no-three no's at Khartoum: no to negotiate,
