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The Alternative Homeland: Pushing Palestinians into Jordan

Jordanian officials rarely say Israel will march on Amman. What they fear, and what they say out loud, is something else: that Israel will annex the West Bank and push its Palestinian population east across the Jordan River. In Arabic this is called al-watan al-badil, "the alternative homeland." It would put Greater Israel's eastern border on the river and make Jordan absorb the people who used to live on the other side. This page shows where that idea comes from in Israeli thought, why it is not hypothetical today, and how Jordan has prepared.

"Jordan is Palestine"​

The idea that Palestinians already have a state, and that it is Jordan, has a long history in Israeli politics.

  • Golda Meir, prime minister: "There are no Palestinians, only Jordanians" (as quoted by Sunna Files, 12 August 2026).
  • Benjamin Netanyahu, 1978, in a clip circulated in 2025: "There already exists a Palestinian state, and that is Jordan. The majority of Jordan's population is Palestinian" (Eli David on X, 20 February 2025, video).
  • Yitzhak Shamir, prime minister, called a second Palestinian state west of the river "a recipe for chaos" (as quoted by Sunna Files).
  • The slogan still circulates on Israeli social media as #JordanIsPalestine, arguing that "Jordan already functions as a Palestinian state given its population demographics and history" (Overt Intent on X, 28 June 2026).

The Yinon blueprint​

In February 1982 Oded Yinon, a former official of Israel's Foreign Ministry, published "A Strategy for Israel in the 1980s" in Kivunim, a Hebrew journal of the World Zionist Organization. On Jordan, as translated by Israel Shahak, it said Israeli policy "ought to be directed at the liquidation of Jordan under the present regime and the transfer of power to the Palestinian majority," so that there would be "the Arabs to Jordan and the Jews to the areas west of the river" (Ismailoğlu Pasha on X, quoting the essay, 23 October 2023). The plan's broader aims are covered on The Yinon Plan of 1982.

Why it is live now​

  • Sovereignty votes. In July 2025 the Knesset passed a non-binding motion, 71 to 13, to apply Israeli sovereignty to the West Bank and the Jordan Valley. Netanyahu said in September 2025, "There will be no Palestinian state to the west of the Jordan River." Smotrich said in May 2026 that "The time has come for us to finally erase the lines that distinguish between Areas A, B, and C, the entire Land of Israel is ours" (as summarized by Grok on X, 21 September 2026).
  • The numbers. About three million Palestinians live in the West Bank. If a large part were pushed across, it would equal "more than a quarter of Jordan's current population; if this were to happen to the United States, it would be the equivalent of more than 80 million refugees coming across the border" (ZNetwork, December 2024).
  • The settler rhetoric. Settler leader Daniella Weiss, asked by Piers Morgan what happens to the millions of Palestinians, answered: "They would go to other places" (Antifa_Ultras on X, 11 March 2026, video of the interview).
  • The same playbook in Gaza. Israel's Intelligence Ministry proposed in October 2023 to move Gaza's population into Egypt's Sinai (see Gaza into Sinai). Jordan sees the same approach aimed at the West Bank.

A Jordanian on Reddit put the popular fear in one line in 2024: "What concern Jordanians actually is the ethnic cleansing of west Bank to Jordan and gaza to Egypt. It's a serious idea they keep talk about." Another: "Before greater israel even happens, israel can end jordan by just taking over the west bank alone" (r/jordan, 4 November 2024).

How Jordan has prepared​

  • "A declaration of war." Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said in September 2024 that any Israeli attempt to displace West Bank Palestinians into Jordan would be interpreted as "a declaration of war." King Abdullah told the UN the same month: "We will never accept the forced displacement of Palestinians, which is a war crime" (ZNetwork).
  • "Massive conflict." The king warned Israel of "a 'massive conflict' if it proceeds with plans to annex large parts of the occupied West Bank," including the Jordan Valley (TheWatchTowers, citing RT).
  • The draft. In August 2025, days after Netanyahu's "very much," Jordan reinstated compulsory military service for the first time in more than three decades. Daoud Kuttab: "Jordan's reinstatement of mandatory service is not nostalgia; it is a necessity. Sovereignty, unity, and survival are non-negotiable" (The New Arab, 26 August 2025).

Why an American reader should care​

A small monarchy that hosts American forces, guards Israel's longest border, and helped shoot down Iranian missiles aimed at Israel has brought back the draft because it fears being made the dumping ground for another people's land. If annexation proceeds and Jordan is destabilized, the United States will be asked to pay for, and possibly fight in, the aftermath. It is worth noticing that Jordan's young men are being drafted to guard against Greater Israel at the same time that Congress is building machinery to compel young Americans (see The forced draft law).

Evidence rating: STRONG that the annexation of the West Bank, now voted for in principle by the Knesset, is designed to push Palestinians toward Jordan, as Israeli leaders and planners have described for decades. CONFIRMED that Jordan treats it as an act of war.

Status: Benjamin Netanyahu, Bezalel Smotrich, Daniella Weiss, Ayman Safadi, King Abdullah II, and Daoud Kuttab are alive. Golda Meir (1978), Yitzhak Shamir (2012), and Israel Shahak (2001) are deceased. Nothing on this page states that any living person committed a crime.

Sources​

Research captures: twitter/t25__v289.md, twitter/t25__v292.md, twitter/t25__v294.md, twitter/t25__v297.md, twitter/t25__v298.md, twitter/t25__v299.md, twitter/t27__v321.md

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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