海角大神

Last year Jordan鈥檚 King Abdullah II hosted President Obama for a visit to Petra, the World Heritage ancient trade-route terminus carved into the cliffs of a red-rocked canyon in southern Jordan.

This weekend, Mr. Obama will host the king in the American desert 鈥� though, instead of a stunning example of antiquity, the venue will be Sunnylands, the former Annenberg estate in Rancho Mirage, Calif.

The two leaders, whom officials on both sides say have established a solid working relationship, will have more to discuss than gorgeous desert sites.聽Over dinner Friday night, Obama and King Abdullah will take up the Syria crisis and Israeli-Palestinian peace talks 鈥� two challenges that are fraught with risk for the king and his kingdom.

Last year, Obama held a two-day summit at Sunnylands with Chinese President Xi Jinping. Now, with the Abdullah dinner, some Californians are referring to聽the estate as Camp David West.

Jordan is home to 600,000 refugees 鈥� and counting 鈥� from next-door neighbor Syria, which is about to enter Year 3 of a devastating civil war. To give an idea of the burdens that places on a country already in economic difficulty, regional experts note that it鈥檚 akin to the entire population of Canada suddenly being forced to flee with nothing across the border into the United States.

Yet as worrisome as the Syrian refugee challenge may be, many Jordanians seem to be even more vexed by the prospects of a US-brokered, two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. That鈥檚 because Jordan is also home to 2 million Palestinians 鈥� many of them listed as 鈥渞efugees,鈥� who were forced to leave their homes when Israel became a state in 1948.

The issue is so front-and-center in Jordanian politics that last week the lower house of parliament approved a statement rejecting Israel鈥檚 demand that it be recognized as a 鈥淛ewish state鈥� as part of any peace deal. Any permanent resolution of the conflict must include a 鈥渞ight of return鈥� for Palestinians to return to lost homes, the Jordanian statement says 鈥� not to mention compensation for countries that have hosted refugees since 1948.

At Sunnylands, Obama may want to sound sympathetic to the leader of a country that for decades has borne the brunt of regional conflicts. But the reality is that almost no one foresees the 鈥渞ight of return鈥� surviving as part of any deal, while Israel as a 鈥淛ewish state鈥� almost certainly will.

Obama last month in his State of the Union address vowed that any peace deal would result in 鈥渓asting peace and security for the State of Israel 鈥� a Jewish state.鈥� A year ago, in a speech in Jerusalem, Obama declared that 鈥淧alestinians must recognize that Israel will be a Jewish state.鈥�

The problem Arabs and specifically Palestinians see with this formulation is that it would mean subordinate status for the 1.7 million Muslim and other religious minorities with Israeli citizenship. But for Abdullah, a declaration of Israel as a Jewish state would signal the end of Palestinian refugees鈥� 鈥渞ight of return鈥� 鈥� something that would be explosive in a country already destabilized by regional pressures.

The Obama-Abdullah t锚te-脿-t锚te is also sure to include Israel's demand that its security forces remain inside any future Palestinian state along the Jordan River valley.

And just in case the Palestinian issue weren鈥檛 enough to sour the Sunnylands dinner, there鈥檚 also Syria.

Obama will no doubt remind his guest that the US is the largest single donor of humanitarian assistance to the Syrian refugees.

But that may provide only minimal comfort for Abdullah, who has tried to maintain a neutral stance in a conflict that has no diplomatic solution in sight, as Obama acknowledged earlier this week at a White House press conference.聽