Jordan is the partner

The State of Israel is preoccupied with tactics but is in desperate need of a comprehensive strategy. The goal that must be posited is a permanent status solution that is desirable for Israel. Complicated arrangements based on international supervision and goodwill are fundamentally no more than temporary, with each side merely waiting suspiciously for their collapse.

It follows that there is no logic in a solution based on the establishment of another Palestinian state, this time west of the Jordan. A minuscule state of this kind, with illogical borders, will only increase the ambition that is intrinsic to Palestinian nationalism - to return to Jaffa, Haifa and Ramle. The economic disparity between the countries, the overcrowding that will stifle the Arab cities - certainly in the wake of the absorption of refugees from other countries - and the day-to-day friction with the State of Israel will heighten the desire to expel all the Jews from here and to realize the "right of return" on a grand scale.

The precedents by which Israel fled from Lebanon, retreated from Sinai and then from all of Yesha [Judea, Samaria and Gaza] will be an excellent catalyst for such a development. It is, therefore, only a matter of time until the Palestinian state, even if it will be without Arafat and will restrain terrorism (good luck to anyone who believes that), will start to gnaw away at the territory of the State of Israel and at its Jewish character. We will then again confront the choice of an endless round of fighting and a "political horizon" whose failure has been proved in blood, time and again.

What is needed, then, is a political initiative that is capable of forging a new and genuine regional order that will be stable over time. The blueprint for regional peace that I presented officially in the past month is just such a plan. It rejects the establishment of a Palestinian state in the heartland. The small area that lies between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea is intended for the establishment of one Jewish state within the great Arab space, and it must remain entirely under Israeli sovereignty. A borderline along the Jordan River is ideal: short, clear and geopolitically logical. We must not forget that the Land of Israel was already divided once, in 1922, when its eastern section became the Hashemite Kingdom of Trans-Jordan, which is a Palestinian state in every respect. It is located in Palestine and its residents are Palestinians.

The only element in Jordan that is not Palestinian is the Hashemite monarchy. The despair in the Palestinian leadership transforms this "weak point" into a strong one: It will facilitate negotiations in which we will try to reach long-term settlements with a royal house that is the most progressive of the Arab regimes and has a distinctly pro-Western bent, and not with the hostile Palestinian leadership whose hands are steeped in the blood of terrorism.

The United States has assumed the task of stabilizing a new regional order in the Middle East. In this new order, the "good" (Jordan and Israel) are strengthened and the terrorists are threatened (liquidation of the Palestinian Authority). Restoring to the Kingdom of Jordan the status of the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people, together with a generous aid package to Jordan and the rehabilitation of its economy can extricate the region from the tragedy in which it is ensnared.

The Palestinian Authority will be dismantled, the war on terrorism will be intensified and all the weapons there will be collected; the Palestinian refugees will be rehabilitated in the various Arab states (including Jordan) with Israeli and international funding, and the Arab residents of Yesha (those who are not refugees) will remain where they are, will be granted Jordanian citizenship and will enjoy a degree of autonomy within the framework of Israeli sovereignty.

Instead of being dragged in the wake of another round of a "political horizon" that will be followed by a blood-drenched collapse, Israel must take the initiative and seize leadership by presenting a viable and stable permanent solution that is based on strength rather than weakness, on historical justice rather than surrender, on a concrete solution for the refugees rather than a vision of shaheeds (martyrs). There is an alternative, and we hold the key. If Israel puts forward the vision of the political blueprint for peace as its policy, it is a reasonable assumption that Washington will gladly adopt it. Perhaps not in the State Department, but in the White House.

This is what is going to happen, but, unfortunately, only after the failure of the road map.

The writer is the chairman of Moledet and the minister of tourism.