October 7 .. Al-Rousan to “Al-Taj”: A Major Turning Point in History, and Jordan Rejects Displacement and Partition

Al-Taj News –

Lina Al-Nasser

Retired Brigadier General and military and strategic expert Ayman Al-Rousan said that October 7, 2023, constituted a major turning point in the history of the Palestinian cause and the Arab-Israeli conflict, noting that the region has, since that day, entered a new phase in which the military, political, and humanitarian confrontation expanded, and Gaza became an arena for an unprecedented war in terms of the scale of destruction and human losses.

Al-Rousan said in an interview with “Al-Taj News” on Wednesday that the most important thing that changed during the past three years was not only on the battlefield, but also in the image of the Palestinian cause within global public opinion and in the nature of Western political discourse toward it.

He explained that Jordan, under the leadership of His Majesty King Abdullah II, emerged during these developments as an active party in defending the rights of the Palestinian people politically, diplomatically, and humanely, setting a set of constants that have not changed since the beginning of the war, foremost among them ending the war, rejecting forced displacement, protecting civilians, rejecting the separation of Gaza from the West Bank, and adhering to the two-state solution.

He explained that Jordan called for a ceasefire from the first hours of the war and warned of the danger of continued military operations against civilians, pointing out that Jordan canceled on 18/10/2023 the four-way summit that had been scheduled in Amman with U.S. President Joe Biden following the Baptist Hospital massacre. It also recalled its ambassador from Tel Aviv on the first of November and requested that the Israeli ambassador not return to Amman until the war stops.

Al-Rousan told “Al-Taj” that the Jordanian position was not based only on reaction, but on a clear political vision that sees what happened on October 7 as inseparable from decades of occupation, settlement, blockade, and the absence of a political solution.

He added that Jordan therefore fought a broad diplomatic battle in Washington, European capitals, and international forums to correct the narrative related to the roots of the conflict and affirm the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people.

Al-Rousan noted that the rejection of displacement was one of the clearest and most firm Jordanian positions, explaining that His Majesty the King considered the displacement of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank a red line, and that any attempt to push Palestinians outside their land means liquidating the Palestinian cause and directly threatening Jordanian national security.

He pointed out that Jordan did not limit itself to the political position, but moved to field and humanitarian action, becoming a major center for relief efforts heading to Gaza by land and air.

He explained that Jordan and its partners carried out hundreds of airdrops of aid during the war, including 164 operations carried out by the Royal Jordanian Air Force. More than 200 land convoys were also dispatched, comprising thousands of trucks carrying food, medical, and shelter supplies through the Hashemite Charitable Organization, in addition to many aid aircraft through Al-Arish Airport that carried more than half a billion tons of aid.

He explained that the Jordanian field hospitals in northern and southern Gaza continued their work despite the difficult security conditions, receiving more than 800,000 visitors and performing thousands of operations.

He added that the humanitarian role extended to the Restore Hope initiative, which contributed to installing thousands of prosthetic limbs for amputees, bread ovens, and many prefabricated buildings, in addition to water-supply projects, as well as Jordan’s proposal for the medical corridor initiative to transfer around 2,000 sick children from Gaza for treatment in Jordan.

He said that these efforts reflect the nature of the Jordanian role, which combined political action with direct humanitarian support.

The King’s Speech at the United Nations

Al-Rousan explained that His Majesty King Abdullah II’s speech before the United Nations General Assembly at the end of last September constituted a significant turning point in Jordanian and Arab diplomacy, pointing out that the King took the New York podium in a tone completely different from the traditional language of appeals, carrying clear and direct language that did not merely describe the humanitarian suffering in Gaza and the West Bank, but moved directly toward dismantling the Israeli and Western terms and concepts that had been misused for decades.

He explained that the focus of the speech centered on dropping the administrative descriptions behind which occupation practices are concealed, noting that settlements and land leveling in the West Bank were no longer mentioned as administrative measures, but rather as actual annexation, in addition to the demolition of homes and confiscation of property.

He noted that the speech addressed the Israeli strategy itself that seeks to separate the Gaza Strip file from the West Bank, explaining that the King demonstrated to global public opinion that the systematic destruction in Gaza and the expansion of settlements in the West Bank are subject to one vision aimed at destroying the future Palestinian state and emptying the two-state solution of its substance.

He pointed out that the strongest political message came particularly regarding the rights of the Palestinian people, as the speech