Jordan Steps Out (1988)

Today's cartoon is from 1988. It was published a couple of days after King Hussein announced that the Kingdom of Jordan was stepping out of the West Bank mess.

Interestingly, the current news is that some Palestinians are asking the Jordanians to step back in. The issue arose when:

"Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signaled that he wants Jordan to dispatch to the West Bank a military unit under Jordanian command that is made up of his own Palestinian Fatah loyalists.

The Palestinian force, known as the Badr Brigade, would bolster Abbas's security in the wake of rival Hamas' conquest of Gaza.

Jordan says it condones deploying the troops. Yet it also insists it has no intention of meddling in a Palestinian power struggle, or of assuming any type of protectorate role in the West Bank.

“We shouldn't read too much into this,” said chief Jordanian government spokesman Nasser Judeh. Deploying the force in the West Bank “shouldn't be seen as Jordan taking up a security or any other role” in the Palestinian territories." -more

Hmmmm?