Jordan's King Abdullah on Friday insisted that appeasing the Palestinian Arabs' nationalistic urges is far more important than improving their quality of life.
"Any Israeli effort to substitute Palestinian development for Palestinian independence cannot bring peace and stability to the region," Abdullah said in address to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Earlier, Abdullah had urged US President Barack Obama to not allow Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to focus on developing the Palestinian economy while putting off the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state.
Netanyahu has suggested that he intends to put Palestinian independence on the back burner and instead work on removing one of the Palestinians' top justifications for their terrorist activity - poor living conditions.