Hamas Leader Meshaal: Jordan Is Not Palestine [Video]

Hamas Leader Khaled Meshaal was in Jordan today for talks with Jordanian leader King Abdullah II. This marks the first time a representative of Hamas has been in the Kingdom of Jordan since 1999. Meshaal declared that the terrosit group had no intention of allowing Jordan to be a home for the Palestinians regardless of whether it was part of historical Palestine.

In a message to the Monarchy the Hamas leader said,

“Jordan belongs to the Jordanians and Palestine to the Palestinians,”

Jordan has a population which is 90% Palestinian. Before the establishment of Jordan and Israel in the 1940’s the entire land of both countries was designated by the League of Nations as the Palestine Mandate which was to make up the Jewish National home. When the British were given the land as a mandate to create a Jewish State, they separated the land into two giving more than 50% of the land to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.

The Jordanian leadership and the Palestinians have a long and bloody history. in September 1970, a month known as “Black September” to the Palestinians, King Abdullah II’s father launched a bloody crackdown to reassert control over the parts of Jordan that were being used by the Palestinians as staging grounds for deadly raids into Israel. During the crackdown tens of thousands of Palestinians were killed and the Palestine Liberation Organization was thrown out of the country.

Jordan had always been quite cordial with Hamas as a counterbalance to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah movement. in 1999, Meshaal along with the rest of the Hamas leadership was expelled from the country for not supporting King Abdullah II’s efforts to make peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

In 1997 Meshaal was almost killed in an assassination attempt by the Israeli Mossad in Jordan.

Hamas has been seen as needing to find a new home base die to the unrest in Syria. The leadership of Hamas has been trying to mend fences with Egypt and Jordan in an effort to strengthen their standing ahead of Palestinian elections.

Israel and the United States regard Hamas as a terrorist group. Hamas has stated repeatedly they will never make peace with Israel and categorically reject the right of the Jewish State to exist.

Watch a video of Hamas Leader Khaled Meshaal with Charlie Rose.