WI: Zionist Homeland as an autonomy of Jordan

The Jordanian Hashemites were, in practice, not that anti-Zionist. Abdullah wanted as much of Palestine (and Greater Syria) that he could get his hands on, but wasn't all that opposed to Jews living Israel/Palestine. And he absolutely preferred the Zionists to the Palestinian movement led by the Mufti Haj Amin Al-Husseini.

Looking at Wikipedia's page on Abdullah I...

Less than a week before the outbreak of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Abdullah met with Meir for one last time on 11 May 1948. Abdullah told Meir, "Why are you in such a hurry to proclaim your state? Why don't you wait a few years? I will take over the whole country and you will be represented in my parliament. I will treat you very well and there will be no war". Abdullah proposed to Meir the creation "of an autonomous Jewish canton within a Hashemite kingdom," but "Meir countered back that in November, they had agreed on a partition with Jewish statehood."

I see two ways something like this could occur...

1. There is no partition proposal in 1947. The British opt not to hand the issue of Palestine to the UN, but instead decide to just wipe their hands of the whole thing and grant Jordan control of Palestine. Abdullah, seeing that both the Palestinian Movement and the Zionists are very unhappy, decides that rather than pissing everybody off he'll cut a deal with the Zionists and establish an autonomy in his Kingdom. He probably offers the B or C proposal from the Woodhead Commission.

2. The Zionists are defeated in 1948. The lands that were Jewish in the 1947 partition proposal, Abdullah decides to turn into a Zionist autonomy. He invites Jews from other parts of Mandatory Palestine that were conquered by Syria and Egypt to resettle in his country.


Either way, Jews in Jordan are probably a core support base for the Hashemite Monarchy I would imagine. There'd probably be an open issue over right of return for Jews. Jordan OTL has been a country that's been very good at taking in very large numbers of refugees from a variety of places though (200,000 Iraqis; 662,000 Syrians, though that number might be as high as 1,400,000; etc).

Haganah and Irgun became the IDF OTL, so I imagine they'd go along with what the Jewish Agency does.
There'd likely be issues with both the PLO and Lehi.


Could Greater Jordan be a successful multinational and cosmopolitan polity?
 
There'd likely be issues with both the PLO and Lehi.
The PLO was only founded in 1964, as a result of Israel's treatment of Palestine and poor relations with its Arab neighbors. With a 1947/48 POD that prevents an independent Israel, does not see the Palestinians expelled, and leaves Jerusalem and the Holy Land under Arab control, it has no reason to exist.
Either way, Jews in Jordan are probably a core support base for the Hashemite Monarchy I would imagine.
The Zionists wanted a Jewish state, not to just end up a minority somewhere else. The Zionist leadership might accept this proposal under the right circumstances, but I'm not sure how much support it would attract among the Jewish settlers, who would likely put more trust in the ability of Jewish paramilitaries to keep them safe than the forces of an Arab government. Under the right circumstances they might come to see the regime as vital to their continued survival (something which might cause it issues among the Arab populace), but on the whole this arrangement seems fragile, and I see more scenarios where it comes undone only a few years later than ones where it endures indefinitely.
 
If the British granted independence in the 30s, I could see this happening

No way after 1945 will the Jewish dispora accept being a minority in any country. After the holocaust no western nation was going to actively push for this

Considering the British gave “independence” to Egypt and Iraq in the 30s as puppet states, this could work if the Jewish community feels there is still a heavy Jewish presence
 
The biggest issue might be the neighbors (Syria, Iraq, Egypt and Saudi Arabia).
I don’t think they would wage war on a fellow Arab state for granting a Jewish anonymous zone. All these nations had significant Jewish communities

Would the capital of this super Jordan still be in Amman or be moved to Jerusalem?
 
i highly doubt that the hebrew settlers would agree to not being independent maybe a losing the 1948 war would make them agree, and haganah would become an unoficial army with irgun spliting between the ones who join haganah & ones who join lehi.
 
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