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Jordan Bypassing PA to Develop Ties with Traditional West Bank Leadership

(Makor Rishon-Hebrew, 26Nov10) Asaf Gavor - Sheikh Ahmad Abu Mashor, 63, is head of the Jahalin Bedouin, numbering 80,000 in the Jerusalem area and 60,000 in Jordan. "The Arab world is returning to the tribal tradition. You can see this clearly in the last parliamentary elections in Jordan, in Iraq, and other Muslim nations. Politics is moving in the direction of rejecting political parties and returning to a division based on families and tribes," he says. King Abdullah of Jordan "has lost confidence in the Palestinian Authority and the PLO institutions," he said. "The Jordanian kingdom is working with the Palestinian sheikhs on a channel of cooperation that bypasses the Palestinian Authority." "The king knows that the PA has no true basis or control in the field. The security forces and the police are clerks that receive a salary...if they stop paying salaries tomorrow, there's no police." He blames Israel for the current illogical situation in which the Palestinians live, not because of the "occupation" but because the Oslo agreements brought in the Palestinian leadership from the PLO in Tunis. While the PA leadership refuses to recognize the Jewish people, Sheikh Abu Mashor has no problem relating to the nation of Israel as "a nation that Allah commanded to live in peace....The relation between Jews and Muslims is one of blood ties that cannot be denied. We are cousins."
2010-12-09 09:34:01
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