ABSTRACT
The Palestinian Authority (PA) possesses potentially two major political advantages over both Jordan and Israel. First, its population alone is highly homogeneous, with Sunni Muslim Palestinians accounting for at least 98 per cent of its population. Its state neighbours, by contrast, are to various degrees, binational. The Palestinian Israelis account for nearly 20 per cent of the Israeli population and in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan they constitute the majority of the population. Second, the ethnonational community that makes these states bi-national is part of the Palestinian people that form the majority in the Palestinian Authority. Whether the future Palestinian entity will be able to mobilize these Palestinians in order to weaken the two neighbouring states, or to pursue, even more ambitiously, a ‘Greater Palestine’ at their expense, depends on the inherent compatibility over political goals between the Palestinians in Jordan and Israel and the Palestinian entity. An analysis of Palestinian perceptions on both sides of the River Jordan towards the JordanianIsraeli peace treaty signed in Wadi Arava on 26 October 1994, and Jordanian-Israeli relations since then, may shed some light on the issue of ethno-nationalism and sub-ethnicity as well as clarify an important policy issue whose importance to future regional stability stands on its own. The greater the differences in perceptions towards these relations stemming from different loyalties and agendas, the more difficult it will be to mobilize Palestinians on behalf of the Palestinian entity in the attainment of potentially irredentist goals.
