These past articles originally published by MER in 1997 and 1998 help put Sharon's rise to the pinnacle of power into much broader perspective.

MER - WASHINGTON - 11/7/98: The day before traveling to the U.S. last month, there they were in Amman - Bibi Netanyahu, Ariel Sharon, and Crown Prince Hassan - parading before the cameras. And as he flew to the U.S. for the already ongoing talks at Wye River, Sharon didn't go right to the talks. Instead he headed out to the Mayo Clinic to get King Hussein's blessings and once again demonstrate to the world his cordial personal relations by the Hashemite dynasty, whose only remaining power base (after being thrown out of both the Hejaz and today's Iraq) is Amman.

There was a time, not that long ago, that Sharon championed a Palestinian State -- one across the river replacing the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan that is. Now Sharon has thrown in his lot with the Hashemites, promising them two things so insiders say: First that there will be no real Palestinian State (no matter what terminology is used and no matter what declarations are made). At most there will be a group of "autonomous" Palestinian Bantustans surrounded by and nearly totally controlled and dependent on Israel -- with Jordan the junior partner. It's a kind of Zionist sandwich for the Palestinians.

Second that the Israelis, as well as the Americans who are of course considerable manipulated by the Israelis on such matters, will protect the Hashemite throne with arms, intelligence, and if need be intervention. No longer will Sharon, or his party, champion the "Jordan is Palestine" mantra long associated with the Likud's Jabotinskyesque ideological origins.

Can Sharon be trusted? Of course not. At the appropriate time, if he could, he would no doubt herd as many Palestinians as possible across the river and not give much of a damn what happened to them or whether they called the old Transjordan of yesteryear Jordan or Palestine when the dust cleared.

Sharon probably would prefer the later, actually, for all kinds of historical and ideological reasons. But nevertheless, the Hashemites are plenty glad at the moment that they feel they have neutralized the former Likud approach to calling their Kingdom "Palestine" and that they have engaged Sharon, regardless of his bloody past, in a series of under-the-table deals and arrangements.

Where Sharon has been most consistent of all is in his championing of the Israeli settlers who are now spread out, nearly a quarter million strong, in nearly 150 settlements as well as in substantial pockets throughout the crucial Jerusalem area.

No single person other than Sharon has had more to do with this result. And no single person at this very moment has more to do with the ongoing expansion and "thickening" of these settlements which are considered the guarantee that no matter what flags are flying and what terminology is used in the newspapers Israel remains in practical control of all the territory west of the Jordan River.

Sharon's close and growing connections with the Hashemite Regime in Amman haven't come just recently with his elevation to Foreign Minister. The following articles were in fact published by MER precisely about Sharon and Jordan in June and October of last year:

MER - WASHINGTON - 11 October, 1997: Ariel Sharon has become a regular visitor to Jordan. He has become the primary conduit to the Hashemites for what the press usually calls "talks" but which anyone who knows the personal history of Ariel Sharon must consider "conspiracies."

There could be no better symbol of how politically duplicitous the Hashemite Regime continues to be then the way it has courted and played up to Ariel Sharon:

* A man even many Israelis consider a war criminal.* A man who flies a large Israeli flag and Menorah atop his requisitioned home in the Muslim quarter of the old city of Jerusalem which must be constantly guarded by Israeli troops.* The man who commanded Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 (20,000+Lebanese civilians dead) and was personally responsible for the Sabra and Shatilla massacres).* A man whose personal history of brutalizing and dispossessing Palestinians goes back to the 1950s,* A man who today as in the past is the main architect of Israel's settlement expansion programs in Jerusalem and throughout the occupied territories.

MER - Washington - 6/1/97: A few weeks ago, in what has become an ongoing series of usually secret talks, the top leaders of Israel and Jordan met in Aqaba, Jordan. It has been learned that Minister of National Infrastructures, Ariel Sharon, told the Israeli Cabinet, "They were nice, long talks." Sharon went on to assure the Cabinet: "I emphasize that there were no concessions by Israel."

Supposedly these talks are primarily about water-related and trade-related issues; including the building of a Jordanian-Israeli rail link which the Jordanians are eagerly pursuing even though the Arab League has called for a suspension of dealings with Israel. In reality the Zionist and Hashemite leaderships continue to plot how to control and repress the Palestinians in ever more crafty and ever more duplicitousways.

King Hussein and Crown Prince Hassan are personally involved in these discussions and were present in Aqaba, as was Prime Minister Netanyahu and top level military commanders from both countries. What is really going on is nothing less than a continuation of the long-time conspiracy involving the Hashemites and the Zionists to sandwich the Palestinian between them, depriving the Palestinians of real self-determination even while Arafat's "Palestinian Authority" continues to be allowed to pretend it is on the way to an independent Palestinian State.

Symbolically worst of all, the Hashemites show no sensitivity at all to the fact that among their main Israeli interlocutors is none other than Ariel Sharon, the most notorious of the Israeli Generals accused of war crimes and quite literally a butcher of Palestinians during his long military career. In addition, Sharon is the man who has planted the Israeli flag right in the middle of the Muslim quarter in Jerusalem's old city.

There he has forced on the Arabs his surreptitiously "purchased" apartment -- one which must be constantly constantly guarded by Uzi-armed Israeli combat troops -- and from which he constantly displays a huge Israeli Menorah alongside the giant Star of David flag.

For past MER articles dealing with the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan: http://www.MiddleEast.Org/jordan.htm