Israel trying to buy out loyalty of Jordan

Israeli Channel 12 reported that Foreign Minister Yair Lapid has secretly met with King Abdullah of Jordan as Prime Minister Naftali Bennett embarked for New York where he was expected to meet with Bahraini and UAE ministers and speak at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). 

Bennett and President Isaac Herzog have also met with King Abdullah, in what is seen as a series of overtures to repair Israel's relationship with the Hashemite Kingdom that had become strained under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's tenure.

Lapid and King Abdullah discussed the tensions in Jerusalem, including around the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif. The two men also spoke of ways to improve ties between Israel and Jordan, acceding to Channel 12.

It added that the Biden administration received a report of the visit.

Bennett's government has also signed a major water deal with the Hashemite Kingdom that almost doubled the amount of water Israel sends to Jordan. It also agreed to allow Jordan to increase its exports to Palestinian areas of the West Bank.

Israel's longest border is with Jordan and the stability of it is vital for Israel's security. 

Israeli President meets King Abdullah of Jordan

Reportedly, Israeli President, Isaac Herzog has met King Abdullah at his palace in Amman. The Herzog-Abdullah meeting took place on the sidelines of a trilateral meeting held in Cairo on Thursday between the Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority. 

At present, Israel is trying to mend its frayed relationship with the Hashemite Kingdom.

“Jordan is a very important country. I have immense respect for King Abdullah, a great leader, and a highly significant regional actor,” Herzog said on Saturday after he revealed details of the visit.

It comes amid a slate of high-level meetings about the frozen peace process as well as regional and bilateral relations between Israel and its neighbors.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett also met with Abdullah in July. Bennett has not spoken publicly about his Jordan trip, but Abdullah has made comments twice that appeared to reference it.

Both Abdullah and Bennett visited United States to meet President Joe Biden in Washington this summer. The Jordanian monarch also had an audience with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

Herzog noted that Abdullah had “recently met extremely important leaders, including President Biden, President Putin, President al-Sisi, and Mahmoud Abbas.

“In our meeting, among the things we discussed were the core issues in the dialogue between our states,” Herzog said.

Israeli-Jordan relationship had been in crisis during the latter part of former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s tenure.

Bennett had immediately sought to make overtures to Jordan, with a major water and trade deal.

Herzog said that he spoke with Abdullah about additional steps that could assist Jordan. This included an “agreement to import agricultural produce during the shmita (agricultural sabbatical) year, energy issues, sustainability, and solutions to the climate crisis that we can advance together,” Herzog said.

In discussing the visit, Herzog also spoke of the importance of Israel’s expanding relations in the region.

He referenced the Abraham Accords by which Israel normalized ties with four Arab countries last year: the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

“There is a sense in the region of a desire to make progress, a desire to speak. We are currently marking one year since the signing of the Abraham Accords,” Herzog said.

“These accords created an important regional infrastructure. They are highly important agreements, which are transforming our region and the dialogue within it,” explained Herzog.

“I was happy to inaugurate the United Arab Emirates’ embassy in Tel Aviv at the start of my term, and I intend to speak with and meet other heads of state in the region.

“I speak with many leaders from all around the world, almost every day, in full coordination with the Government of Israel. I think that it is very important for the State of Israel’s strategic and diplomatic interests to engage everyone in dialogue,” Herzog said.

His office added that the king had invited Herzog to visit and that the two men had discussed bilateral and regional strategic issues.

The visit was coordinated between Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid.

It comes in advance of an anticipated meeting between Bennett and Egyptian leaders, although no date has been set for the trip.

Bennett, however, has dismissed the possibility of meeting with Abbas or even speaking with him on the phone. The peace process between Israelis and Palestinians has been frozen since 2014 and conversations between Netanyahu and Abbas were rare.

In an unusual move, Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with Abbas last week to discuss security matters and economic gestures.

Herzog spoke with Abbas after taking office. He told Channel 13 that he thought it was correct to speak with the Palestinians, particularly on the matter of security.

The absence of talks with the Palestinians will not contribute to Israel’s security, Herzog said.

Overall, he told Channel 13, when it comes to dialogue between Israel and Arab leaders there is a window of goodwill that Israel should make use of wisely.

Palestinian-Jordanian crisis erupts ahead of Biden-Abdullah meeting

A senior Palestinian official has triggered a crisis between the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Jordan after stating that the Palestinians alone had thwarted former US President Donald Trump’s plan for Mideast peace. 

The Jordanians say that they also played a major role in derailing the Trump plan as they feared the plan was aimed at turning their country into an alternative homeland for the Palestinians.

The PA dismissed the Trump plan, which was unveiled in January 2020, as a conspiracy aiming to liquidate the Palestinian issue and Palestinian rights. The Arab League, including Jordan, also rejected the plan, saying it would not lead to peace or meet the minimum rights and aspirations of the Palestinians.

The crisis emerged on the eve of a meeting in Washington between Jordan’s King Abdullah II and US President Joe Biden.

It also comes two weeks after PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Abdullah agreed during a meeting in Amman to coordinate positions “on the interest of the Arab nation and its common cause, primarily the Palestinian cause,” according to the PA’s official news agency WAFA.

During the meeting, Abdullah reiterated Jordan’s support for the Palestinians “in achieving their just and legitimate rights and establishing their independent, sovereign and viable state on the June 4, 1967, lines, with east Jerusalem as its capital,” Jordan’s official Petra news agency reported.

The crisis erupted during a recent meeting of the Arab Parliament, the legislative body of the Arab League. A video of the rare public, heated discussion appeared over the weekend on various social media platforms, drawing sharp criticism from Palestinians and Jordanians alike.

The Palestinian official, Azzam al-Ahmed, a veteran member of the Fatah Central Committee, said in a speech before the parliament that the Palestinians alone had foiled Trump’s “Deal of the Century.”

“We are the ones who clashed with America,” he said.

Ahmed’s speech was interrupted by Jordanian parliament member Khalil Atiyyeh, who said, “Azzam, you were not alone in the field. Until now, we [Jordanians] are paying the price for our position over the ‘Deal of the Century’ and support for the Palestinians.

“There are conspiracies being concocted against Jordan and the king,” he said. “The Jordanian people are being starved because of their opposition to the plan.”

The head of the “Palestine Committee” in the Jordanian Parliament, Mohammed al-Zahrawi, expressed his appreciation for the position of Attiyeh and denounced the Palestinian official’s “failure to address Jordan’s firm position under the king’s leadership in defending the Palestinian cause and the rights of the Palestinian people.”

Zahrawi accused the Palestinian official of ignoring Jordan’s role in supporting the Palestinian issue. “Jordan confronted the ‘Deal of the Century’ and all schemes, and was subjected to pressure as a result of its firm stances, which Azzam al-Ahmed deliberately did not address in his speech,” he said.

Several Palestinians criticized Ahmed both for his speech and his participation in the Arab Parliament gathering.

In 2018, Abbas dissolved the Palestinian parliament, the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), which has been paralyzed since 2007 when Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip. In 2006, Ahmed was elected as a member of the PLC representing the area of Jenin as a Fatah candidate.

“Is Azzam al-Ahmed still a member of the parliament?” asked Palestinian journalist Naela Khalil. “Didn’t the president dissolve the Palestinian Legislative Council?”

Another Palestinian journalist, Muath Hamed, commented on Ahmed’s speech in a post on Facebook by reminding him that he was not speaking on Palestine TV. “You are talking in front of Arab parliamentarians, not Palestine TV,” Hamed wrote. “This means that there are microphones and the attendees can reply to you on the spot.”

Some Jordanian social media users accused the Palestinians of being “ungrateful” and praised the Jordanian parliamentarian for “silencing” his Palestinian colleague.

Jordanian Professor Faiz Zoubi commented on Twitter, “Thank you Khalil Attiyeh for your firm stance in the face of Azzam al-Ahmed. The Jordanian people and their leadership have been looking after the Palestinian cause for 70 years. The king is now in the US for the sake of the Palestinian cause, and where are you [Ahmed]?”

The Trump peace plan, officially titled “Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinians and Israeli People,” was authored by Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner.

Why Biden-Abdullah meeting termed eminent?

King Abdullah of Jordan is scheduled to meet President Joe Biden at the White House on 19th July 2021. He becomes the first Arab leader to be welcomed by the US president since he took office in January this year.

The official visit marks a crucial reset to US-Jordanian ties, which had suffered under President Donald Trump. The last time King Abdullah visited the White House was in June 2018.

Announcing the visit Jordan’s Royal Court said it will “cover strategic ties between Jordan and the United States and means of bolstering them across several sectors, as well as the latest regional developments.”

On 7th July, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said the visit will “highlight the enduring and strategic partnership between the United States and Jordan, a key security partner and ally of the United States. It will be an opportunity to discuss the many challenges facing the Middle East, and showcase Jordan’s leadership role in promoting peace and stability in the region.”

She added that President Biden looks forward to working with the king “to strengthen bilateral cooperation on multiple political, security, and economic issues, including the promotion of economic opportunities that will be vital for a bright future in Jordan.”

For King Abdullah it is vital that he renews US support for his role as guardian and custodian of Muslim holy places in East Jerusalem — an issue that had come under threat during the last months of Trump’s presidency.

In a bid to woo Saudi Arabia into concluding a separate peace deal with Israel, Western media reports suggested that Netanyahu and Kushner might have been ready to offer Riyadh custodianship of Al-Aqsa Mosque, replacing King Abdullah.

Saudi Arabia has repeatedly supported Jordan’s special role at the holy mosque. One thing is clear that President Biden supports the new détente between Israel and Jordan as exemplified by the recently unannounced visit by Bennett to Amman and the ensuing agreement to supply water-parched Jordan with an additional 50 million cubic meters of Israeli water.

In recent years Jordan had become increasingly dependent — to the anger of many Jordanians — on Israeli natural gas and water. Israel also agreed to allow Amman to increase its exports to the West Bank to US$700 million annually, from US$160 million.

Before he left Amman the king met with the Palestinian President, who, according to sources, authorized him to take any steps needed to convince the US administration to revive the peace process. Both Amman and Ramallah lost a lot of political sway during and after the recent Israel-Gaza war, when Hamas emerged as a key player in Palestinian politics at the expense of the Palestinian Authority.

Jordan has no formal ties with Hamas, while Abbas failed to reconcile with the movement, which controls Gaza. Following the death of a Palestinian activist, while in the PA’s custody in late June, protests broke out in the West Bank calling for Abbas’ ouster. The Palestinian leader, whose term as President ended almost a decade ago, has never been more unpopular among his own people. His own Fatah movement has splintered as he postponed legislative and presidential elections earlier this year.

For King Abdullah there are other issues that he would like to discuss with the Biden administration as well. Jordan’s economy is suffering with record unemployment and poverty rates and a soaring public debt. Public pressure is mounting on the government to provide socio-economic solutions — a key factor in a sedition plot involving the king’s half-brother and a former aide aimed at destabilizing the kingdom, which the Biden administration helped expose last March.

Behind closed doors the king, who is accompanied on the trip by Queen Rania and Crown Prince Hussein, will probably ask President Biden to find ways to exempt the kingdom from penalties under the Caesar Act regarding trading with Syria, Jordan’s northern neighbor. The war-torn country is in bad need of basic goods and materials that Jordan can provide, especially to southern Syria. The White House will almost certainly put pressure on the king to speed up the process of adopting genuine political and economic reforms while improving the kingdom’s human rights and freedom of speech records.

But from a strategic angle, the two countries are boosting their military and intelligence cooperation. Earlier this month the US announced that it was redeploying military assets and personnel from Afghanistan and Qatar to Jordanian bases. This comes after the two countries signed a controversial defense agreement last January that was not ratified by the Jordanian parliament.

As the two countries mark more than 70 years of bilateral ties, there is no doubt that the King, who will also meet senior administration officials; Congress leadership; members of the Senate Armed Services, Foreign Relations, and Appropriations committees; and members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, will return to Amman feeling much better about the future of this strategic relationship. The question is how will this relationship shape the future of Jordan in a fast changing region?   

Widening breach between Israel and Jordan

Israeli ties with Jordan have not been good for a long time. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and King Abdullah do not publicly meet and do not publicly speak. It looks as if Israel’s relations with its neighbor are non-existent; there is barely any trade, tourism, or diplomatic cooperation.

The reasons behind the tension vary. There is the Palestinian issue and lack of progress on the peace track, which the King seems to blame on Netanyahu. There is continued settlement construction which the King blames on Netanyahu. There are other issues like Jordanian concern that the Hashemite Kingdom is losing its hold over al-Aqsa Mosque as well as the way Netanyahu gave a hero’s welcome to an Israeli security guard who shot and killed two Jordanians in Amman in 2017.

The origins of the latest round can be found last Wednesday when Jordanian Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah had planned to visit al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount following coordination with Israel on his security. However, the prince arrived at the Israeli border with more armed guards than had been agreed on, Israeli sources said. The additional guards were not permitted to enter Israel and Hussein canceled his visit.

As a result – and possibly in response – Jordan canceled the permission it had given Israel for Netanyahu’s plane to pass through its airspace on its way to the United Arab Emirates where he was supposed to meet on Thursday with the UAE leader and Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

As a result, Netanyahu had to cancel what was supposed to have been a historic first visit to the UAE. It was the fourth time the visit was canceled or postponed, not exactly a positive sign when it comes to building new relations between the two countries.

Israel’s decision to prevent a large number of armed Jordanians from entering the Temple Mount was likely done to try and preserve an image of Israeli sovereignty over the holy site. In response, and due to the insult, the Jordanians banned Netanyahu’s plane for the same reason, if you don’t let us into your sovereign territory, we won’t let you into our sovereign territory.

All of this is bad for Israel, bad for Jordan and bad for the region. One of the pillars of stability for Israel over the last few decades has been the fact that it does not face a conventional military threat from the East due to the peace it has with Jordan. As a result, Israel has been able to focus its military where it really needs to – from Gaza in the South to Hezbollah and Syria in the North.

Jordan has also gained from its peace with Israel. It improved its relations with the United States, began to purchase American military hardware and reaps benefits from the close military relationship between Jerusalem and Amman.

For too long, the peace between Israel and Jordan has been cold. It has existed almost exclusively on a government-to-government level with very little public expression or people-to-people exchange.

Normalization between Israel and the UAE shows what is possible but also the type of investment that is needed to make it work. Israel and Jordan need to set aside their differences and reestablish common ground. They will not agree on everything, but working together will be more beneficial for the two countries.

Makkah Summit

King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia has called an emergency Islamic Summit in Makkah to discussed key issues facing Muslim Ummah.

This offers an opportunity to Muslim leaders to discuss the prevailing situation, showing deep divided and to come up with solution that can exhibit their unity and solidarity. 

However, there is no mention of Iran, enduring economic sanction imposed by the Western countries for more than three decades. One can still recall that some of the Arab countries had provided huge funds to Iraq when it attacked Iran, which helped in extending the war for nearly a decade.

World renowned, Abdullah Omar Naseef emphasizing the significance of the Summit has said, "There is nothing strange in this call by King Abdullah for an emergency summit. It shows his deep concern toward Islamic issues as a prominent Muslim leader in the world," He also said, "This summit is being held at the right time, when the Islamic nation is facing a lot of challenges and crises, such as the worsening situation in Syria, the ethnic cleansing of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, and the continuing Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians.”

A member of the World Council for Mosques, an affiliate of the Makkah-based Muslim World League, Dr. Baheej Mulla Owais said, "We are pinning great hope on this extraordinary summit and pray that it will be a great success in realizing its objectives." He also mentioned another summit held in Makkah, called by King Abdullah about five years ago to reconcile Iraqi factions. "That summit was successful in reducing the bloodbath between Iraqi groups and narrowing their differences. Sitting in front of the Holy Kaaba, they had pledged to stop fighting each other," he added.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian called on Muslim leaders to address the Syrian and Bahraini crises simultaneously in their gathering in Makkah. Iran has also proposed that the Palestinian issue and solidarity in the Muslim world should be discussed at the meeting and that divisive issues would not be raised. 

 Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad leaving Tehran to attend the emergency Islamic summit said is likely to express the views of the Iranian nation on the issues facing the Muslim world. “This meeting is an opportunity for our nation’s standpoint to be explained clearly and for efforts to be made toward the convergence and protection of the interests and integrity of Muslim nations.”   

One just can’t resist from mentioning meeting of leaders of 42 countries who have given their node to participate in the XVI Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), which is scheduled to be held in Tehran from Aug 26 to 31. 

While efforts by Saudi Arabia and Iran deserve appreciation, the bottomline remains can Arabs really come out of the pressure of United States? There is growing consensus among the analysts that toppling of Asad regime in Syria is part of the grand agenda to isolate Iran, which is considered a threat for Arab monarchies.