World must condemn Ben-Gvir

Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir visited the Temple Mount on Sunday morning, two days after Jerusalem Day. He said, "I am happy to go up to the Temple Mount, the most important place for the people of Israel."

"It should be said that the police are doing a wonderful job here and once again proving who the master in Jerusalem is. All the threats of Hamas will not change anything; we are the masters of Jerusalem and the entire Land of Israel."

Ben-Gvir also referenced ongoing tensions surrounding the upcoming votes on the national budget, saying "We need to remember our brothers in the Negev and the Galilee. In the upcoming budget, we must invest in the Negev and the Galilee. Jerusalem is our soul, the Negev and the Galilee is our soul, we must invest, we must act there, we must be the owners of both the Negev and the Galilee, and the foundation of this is the budget."

The head of the Temple Mount Administration, Rabbi Shimshon Elbaum, welcomed the visit stating, "I congratulate National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir for his ascent to the Temple Mount, which gives meaning to the slogan 'The Temple Mount is in our hands' which recently turned 56 years old."

"Ben-Gvir has been active since his youth in favor of Jewish pilgrimages to the Temple Mount, and since taking office has already caused significant improvements, removing hundreds of harassers and strengthening Israel's rule on the Temple Mount."

The Tag Meir organization condemned the visit, stating "Ben-Gvir and a friend of his want to forcefully change the status quo on the Temple Mount and set Jerusalem and the Middle East on fire. Until when will we continue to pay the price of the irresponsible appointment of Ben-Gvir to the position of national security minister of the State of Israel?"

The spokesman for the Palestinian Authority presidency, Nabil Abu Rudeineh, called Ben-Gvir's visit to the site a "flagrant attack on al-Aqsa" warning that it would have "serious repercussions," according to the Palestinian WAFA news agency.

"The entry of the extremist Ben-Gvir at an early hour, like thieves, into the al-Aqsa Mosque square will not change reality and will not impose Israeli sovereignty over it," added Abu Rudeineh.

The Jordanian Foreign Ministry condemned the visit in the strongest terms, calling it a dangerous and unacceptable escalation and a flagrant and unacceptable violation of international law, and of the historical and legal status quo in Jerusalem and its sanctities.

The ministry added that the continuous violations and attacks on the Islamic and Christian sanctities in Jerusalem, in conjunction with the continuation of unilateral measures of settlement expansion and continuous incursions into the occupied Palestinian territories, warns of further escalation, and represents a dangerous trend that the international community must work to stop immediately."

The Turkish Foreign Ministry also condemned Ben-Gvir's visit to the Temple Mount on Sunday, calling it a clear breach of the international law.

"It is in no way acceptable that Israeli government members challenge the historical status of Al-Haram Al-Sharif (the name commonly used in Arabic for the Temple Mount) in this manner and commit inflammatory and fascistic actions," added the ministry.

"We call on the Israeli government once again to act responsibly, and to put an end to all kinds of provocative actions violating the historical status of Al-Haram Al-Sharif that is based on the international law."

The Saudi Foreign Ministry condemned the visit as well, stating, "The ministry affirms that these systematic practices are considered a flagrant violation of all international norms and covenants, and a provocation of the feelings of Muslims around the world. The ministry holds the Israeli occupation forces fully responsible for the repercussions of the continuation of these violations.”

Hamas's spokesman for the city of Jerusalem, Mohammed Hamada, stressed that the movement would not leave al-Aqsa alone and warned that Israel will bear responsibility for the barbaric incursions of its ministers and herds of settlers.

Hamada called on Palestinians and Arabs in Jerusalem, the West Bank and Israeli territory to intensify their presence in al-Aqsa in order confront all attempts to desecrate and Judaize it.

Palestinian media outlets affiliated with Hamas, including the Shehab news agency, published a graphic showing Ben-Gvir with a red target over him and the words "Ben-Gvir is a target for our heroes and the wrath of our revolutionaries."

On Thursday, Jewish visitors to the Temple Mount raised the Israeli flag while singing "Hatikva," as over a thousand Jews visited the complex to mark Jerusalem Day. Despite Jerusalem Day officially being on Friday, most of the festivities for the day were moved to Thursday to avoid a desecration of the Shabbat.

Video from the scene showed a man carrying a small flag while the group walking with him sang the Israeli national anthem. The man carrying the flag was detained. At least three additional individuals raised Israeli flags on the Mount on Thursday as well.

A number of ministers and MKs visited the Temple Mount on Thursday as well, including Negev and Galilee and National Resilience Minister Yitzhak Wasserlauf (Otzma Yehudit) and Likud MKs Dan Illouz, Ariel Kallner and Amit Halevi.

Since the Jerusalem Day flag march on Thursday, a series of violent incidents have been reported in the Old City of Jerusalem. Before and during the march, scuffles broke out between Jews, Arabs and police officers throughout the Old City.

Journalists covering the flag march were also attacked by right-wing participants of the march near the Damascus Gate on Thursday afternoon, with participants jeering at them and hitting them with various objects. The police stated that they arrested two of the participants who attacked the journalists. One of the suspects, a minor, was also carrying a knife in their bag.

On Friday afternoon, clashes erupted between Palestinians, Jews and Israel Police near the Lions' Gate of the Old City of Jerusalem, shortly before Friday prayers were set to begin at al-Aqsa Mosque. Two Israeli civilians and a police officer were injured amid the violence.

Footage reportedly from the scene showed Jews dancing and singing in the area before fights erupted and police intervened, throwing stun grenades into the crowd. Palestinians were seen throwing stones at the Jewish individuals during the clashes. The windshields of vehicles belonging to Palestinians were smashed as well, according to Palestinian reports. A number of Palestinians were reportedly injured amid the violence.

 

UN Security Council members stress Al Aqsa status quo

UN Security Council members voiced concern on Thursday and stressed the need to maintain a status quo at the Al Aqsa mosque compound in Jerusalem, days after Israel's new far-right security minister Itamar Ben-Gvir briefly visited the site, reports Reuters.

The decades-old status quo allows only Muslim worship at the compound, a site also revered by Jews, who call it the Temple Mount. An Israeli official said Ben-Gvir complied with the arrangement that allows non-Muslims to visit but not pray.

Palestinian UN envoy Riyad Mansour pushed for the Security Council to take action - a move that was unlikely given the United States traditionally shields Israel. The United States, Russia, China, France and Britain are all council veto powers.

"What red line does Israel need to cross for the Security Council to finally say, enough is enough," Mansour told the 15-member council, accusing Israel of showing absolute contempt.

Senior UN political affairs official, Khaled Khiari, told the council it was the first visit to the site by an Israeli cabinet minister since 2017.

"While the visit was not accompanied or followed by violence, it is seen as particularly inflammatory given Ben-Gvir's past advocacy for changes to the status quo," he said.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for all parties to refrain from steps that could escalate tensions in and around the holy sites

Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan told reporters ahead of the meeting, "Jews are permitted to visit the holiest site in Judaism. It is the right of every Jew, every Jew. Israel has not harmed the status quo and has no plans to do so."

Ben-Gvir once called for ending the ban on Jewish prayer at the site, but has been non-committal on the issue since aligning with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Other members of Ben-Gvir's Jewish Power party still advocate such a move.

The United States is committed to a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and was "concerned by any unilateral acts that exacerbate tensions or undermine the viability of a two-state solution," US Deputy UN Ambassador Robert Wood told the council.

"We note that Prime Minister Netanyahu's governing platform calls for preservation of the status quo with relation to the holy places. We expect the Government of Israel to follow through on that commitment," Wood said

Naftali Bennett from one crisis to another

Lately a cartoon described the condition being faced by Israeli Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, swimming in shark-filled waters, but he is not aware that there are more than a dozen sharks trailing him behind his back. 

The cartoon aptly illustrated where Bennett’s government stands right now, after resolving its coalition crisis with the Ra’am (United Arab List) Party.

That crisis was a reminder of how difficult it is to survive with a slim majority in the Knesset of 60 to 59 on a good day. It also demonstrated how sensitive the coalition is to any issue that could provoke controversy.

Mansour Abbas leading Ra’am into the coalition was celebrated worldwide as a historic breakthrough for Israel. Along with the Abraham Accords, an Arab party joining the coalition was seen internationally as Israel successfully entering a new era of mutually beneficial strategic cooperation with the Arab world despite the conflict with the Palestinians remaining unresolved.

Abbas enthusiastically and optimistically told The Jerusalem Post at an October 2021 press conference at the Knesset, where he presented the government’s massive new allocations to the Arab sector, that it would now become natural for Arab parties to join every Israeli governing coalition forever.

That historic breakthrough was nearly lost, due to Temple Mount violence and the lack of honest reporting about it. Like countless times in the past, violence on the Temple Mount that was exaggerated and fanned by fake news threatened to derail the sensitive fabric of life in the Holy Land.

Reports in the Arab world that made it look as though Israel was purposely trying to kill Muslims at prayer at the Aqsa Mosque nearly made it impossible for Abbas to climb down from the Mount and back into the coalition.

Even when Abbas was finally ready to end the crisis, another incident magnified in the international Arabic media around the world got in the way. Wednesday’s incident in Jenin in which Al Jazeera correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh was shot dead – and the bad press Israel got in its aftermath – could have forced Abbas to continue to freeze his party’s membership in the coalition, vote for a bill that would initiate an election and perhaps even torpedo Bennett’s government.

Abbas canceled a press conference he had scheduled in Kafr Kassem, called Abu Akleh a martyr and said he would insist on an international investigation of the incident. He would have carried on his protest of the incident longer and scored more points with his constituents, if he had had time.

But Abbas had to announce how his party would vote on the Likud’s Knesset dissolution bill in the afternoon and could not wait. His speech about “giving the coalition another chance” could have been written the day he began what was essentially a fake crisis that he initiated to look like the defender of al-Aqsa while the Knesset was on recess.

Abbas knows that he needs as much time as he can get in the coalition for his constituents to be able to see with their own eyes – or at least with their pocketbooks – the positive results of him joining.

What made it easier for Abbas to justify unfreezing Ra’am’s membership in the coalition was the foolishly unruly behavior of the opposition.

He spoke immediately after opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu blasted him in a speech in the Knesset plenum that was supposed to be about Theodor Herzl.

Netanyahu picked yet another fight with Abbas, even though Ra’am could be a very easy coalition partner for him in the future. Every time Netanyahu calls Abbas “a terror supporter” or pretends he did not negotiate Ra’am building a bond with the Likud, Bennett’s coalition gets stronger.

The most right-wing MK in the Knesset, Itamar Ben-Gvir, helped strengthen the coalition even more by crashing Abbas’s press conference in the Knesset. Alternate Prime Minister Yair Lapid said later that the public prefers Abbas in the coalition over Ben-Gvir.

Then there was the opposition’s most uncouth MK, David Amsalem, who shocked MKs in both the coalition and opposition three times on Wednesday.

First he started an unnecessary fight with Knesset Speaker Mickey Levy, threatening the former Jerusalem police chief. Then he insisted on responding in the plenum to a consensus bill proposed by deaf MK Shirley Pinto that would require government offices to speak to deaf people via text messages. The bill passed 40-0, but Amsalem still had to speak against it.

Finally, Amsalem left a live interview with Channel 12 to cast the deciding vote on a bill. Meretz MK Yair Golan was on the same program, and the two had paired off to leave the coalition and opposition with the same balance in the plenum. But Amsalem left Golan as he was speaking next to him and raced up to vote.

It was less noticed by the coalition, but another MK who embarrassed herself was former coalition chairwoman Idit Silman. She claimed in a TV interview that one of the reasons she defected to the opposition was that the government had built a “Reform Kotel.”

She knows full well that no progress has been made on implementing the Western Wall agreement, that the family prayer site is not intended only for Reform Jews, that Reform is not a slur, and that while Bennett did build what he called the “Ezrat Israel,” it was when he was Jerusalem affairs minister under Netanyahu in 2014.

Silman said in the Knesset cafeteria that she thinks her bolting the coalition will prevent the site’s renovation. She said that since she left, the coalition has had to go “rightward” – yamina in Hebrew. But the coalition’s cooperation with the Joint List that came as the result of her departure has proven that the opposite is true.

Now that the fight with Abbas is over, there are plenty of challenges that await the coalition.

The sharks approaching Bennett include Jerusalem Day celebrations in two weeks, next month’s visit of US President Joe Biden to Israel, attempts to pass next year’s state budget that will begin on June 16, wavering Yamina MK Nir Orbach’s demand to hook up unauthorized outposts to the national electricity grid, and the pregnancy of New Hope faction head Sharren Haskel.

Haskel is due at the end of July, around the same time the Knesset will leave for its next recess. If she gives birth early, she may have to bring her newborn into the plenum to vote, as Pinto did six days after the birth of her child in December.

Jerusalem Day will be the first challenge. Opposition officials said they intend to exploit the holiday to anger Ra’am again, but they said they do have limits.

“We won’t cause a security crisis to cause a political crisis with Ra’am, but we will call for people to go on the Temple Mount on Jerusalem Day, of course,” a Likud spokesman said.

The spokesman said he did not think Netanyahu would ascend the Temple Mount, but acknowledged that it would not be the first time such a controversial step was taken by the head of the opposition from the Likud.

“It’s clear to everyone that the next crisis with Ra’am is only a matter of time,” the spokesman said. “This past week was not ideal for the opposition, but we won’t give up. They have dozens of bills in the pipeline that we stopped. They aren’t even trying to pass them. Even some they put on the agenda they took back. This doesn’t look like a government that can last very long. It can last a few weeks, but it is bound to end soon.”

In the weeks ahead, the coalition intends to continue the strategy that worked this week. Uncontroversial socioeconomic legislation will be advanced. Bills that do not have a consensus will have to wait.

Coalition bills will be put on the agenda only if a majority is obtained for them well in advance. Opposition bills will be passed by the coalition if they make sense and do not cost money, as eight were on Wednesday.

De facto coalition chairman Boaz Toporovsky said he intends to proceed with caution, knowing full well that there are plenty of sharks ready to attack. But he was not afraid of exulting about the opposition backing down from bringing the Knesset dissolution bill to a vote.

“The opposition surrendered and pulled back the bill,” Toporovsky said. “Another political spin crashed. They are scared. They know they have no majority, neither in the Knesset nor in the public. I recommend that all our doubters wait patiently and watch our government be strong and function. The unified coalition will continue to come to the Knesset and work hard for the entire Israeli public.”

Courtesy: The Jerusalem Post

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. 

Is Bennett being trapped by non-state actors?

On last Sunday it appeared that Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had just erased a 54-year policy banning Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount. Had Bennett actually made such a policy change, it likely would have started a religious war between Jews and Muslims, due to vehement opposition to Jewish prayer at the site. 

Domestically it would have collapsed his coalition and set Israel hurtling back into another election cycle.

It’s a move that could have severed Israel’s ties with its neighbor Jordan and complicated relations between Amman and Washington on the eve of US President Joe Biden’s first meeting there with King Abdullah the next day, particularly given that the Hashemite Kingdom has a special custodial relationship to the Temple Mount.

At issue was a line in a tweet sent out by the Prime Minister’s Office in the aftermath of clashes at the Temple Mount, also known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif.

Initially it looked like a simple message, letting the public know that Bennett had spoken “with Public Security Minister Bar Lev and Israel Police Insp.-Gen. Shabtai and thanked them for managing the events on the Temple Mount with responsibility and consideration.”

This could have been termed the most innocuous statement in the world, the Prime Minister’s Office added that this was done “while maintaining freedom of worship for Jews on the Mount.”

The Prime Minister’s Office continued the Twitter thread, stating that Bennett had emphasized that “freedom of worship on the Temple Mount will be fully preserved for Muslims as well, who will soon be marking the fast of the Day of Arafah and the Eid al-Adha.”

Not exactly the type of notice one issues when setting a policy change. Except that a policy – known as the status quo – worked out in the aftermath of the Six Day War in 1967 between Israel and the Wakf Islamic religious trust allows members of all faiths to visit the site, while banning anyone but Muslims from praying there. Jews in particular are expected to pray at the nearby Western Wall.

Bennett backtracked, with his spokesman Matan Sidi clarifying that there was no change to the status quo. Sidi’s words appeared to extinguish potential sparks, but the timing could not have been worse.

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.

Brewing Israel Jordan crisis

The fragility of one of Israel’s most important regional allies ‑ Jordan ‑ with whom security ties are often described as a cornerstone of regional stability – was underscored by a series of apparent tit-for-tat diplomatic price-tag attacks, most recently.

On Wednesday, Israel prevented Hashemite Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah from visiting the Temple Mount. Jordan in retaliation refused on Thursday to authorize Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu flight path to the United Arab Emirates, causing the trip's cancellation.

It's the latest diplomatic skirmish in a 26-year relationship fraught with crises brought on by religion, geo-politics and violence.

Netanyahu might have glossed over the incident, pointing out that the flight path was later approved, but it's harder to brush away the persistent simmering tensions.

Here is a look at 10 Israeli-Jordanian crisis points, many of which center around the Temple Mount, as the present crisis does.

1. Prince Hussein denied access to Temple Mount

Israel might have barred Hussein from entering Israel because he wanted to bring a security retinue that was larger than agreed. But the issue at the heart of the dispute is about control of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, the most holy site for Jews and third-holiest site for Muslims.

There were those in Israel who felt the size of the security details was a deliberate show of Jordanian power and a statement against its authority over the site, which lies within Israel’s sovereign borders.

Israel wants Jordan to accept its sovereignty over the Temple Mount.

The Hashemite Kingdom’s special custodial relationship to the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif, is one of the central pillars on which rests a monarchy whose family claims to descend from the Prophet Mohammed, and which takes pride in a long history as the keeper of holy Islamic spaces.

The British in 1924 during its rule over Mandatory Palestine granted the Hashemite Kingdom a special custodial role over the al-Aqsa compound.

The 1994 Israeli-Jordanian Peace Treaty enshrined that role, but events over the last decade have made Jordan nervous about the future status of that relationship. Wednesday's border snafu was a stark reminder that its custodial relationship could be in jeopardy.

2. West Bank annexation

Israeli willingness to advance a plan to annex 30% of the West Bank over the last two years, including the Jordan Valley, created an immediate public backlash among the Jordanian public that could have threatened to undermine the Hashemite Kingdom, had Netanyahu not suspended the plan in August 2020.

Palestinians make up over 50% of the population in Jordan, so tensions in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict often translate into public pressure on the Jordanian leadership to take a hasher tone with Israel.

3. A Saudi role on the Temple Mount?

There was public speculation that in order to entice Saudi Arabia to normalize ties with Israel, the Trump administration had considered weakening Jordan’s sole role as custodian of al-Aqsa Mosque compound by offering a role to the Saudi Arabian monarchy, the House of Saud.

It was a move that would have been a violation of the 1994 peace treaty, and which struck a particularly sensitive nerve because of the competition between the Hashemites and the House of Saud as the spiritual keepers of the Islamic faith.

A century ago, Hashemites lost control of Mecca and Medina to the House of Saud, so its only foothold on Islamic holy spaces is now its special custodial role over the al-Aqsa compound in Jerusalem.

4. Israeli drive to change Temple Mount status quo

The Temple Mount, where the biblical Temple once stood, is one of the most volatile flash points in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

It is governed by a very careful arrangement among Israel, Jordan and the Islamic Wakf (Islamic trust), which administers the site that everyone can visit but where only Muslims can worship. The ban on non-Muslim worship has been in place since the aftermath of the Six Day War.

Former US president Donald Trump’s peace plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict alluded to a change in that status quo that would allow for those of all faiths to pray there, including Jews.

There has been a growing political movement within the Israeli Right, including by ministers of Netanyahu’s own Likud Party, to allow Jewish worship at the site.

Netanyahu has continually spoken of maintaining the status quo, but persistent comments by his ministers as well as legislative drives in the Knesset has given Jordan cause for concern.

Jordan's persistent warnings about the erosion of the Temple Mount status quo has, in turn, inflamed Palestinians and helped spark violent incidents in Jerusalem and the West Bank.

5. Temple Mount metal detector crisis

A brief crisis erupted in the summer of 2017 after two Israeli policemen were shot to death by the Lion’s Gate entrance to Jerusalem’s Old City by three Israeli-Arabs, who had just visited al-Aqsa Mosque compound for the weekly Friday prayers. After the attack they ran back in the direction of the Temple Mount, where they were killed by Israeli police.

To prevent further such attacks, Israel placed metal detectors at the entrance to the Temple Mount to ensure that Muslim worshipers were not armed. The decision sparked immediate violent protests in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and created an immediate diplomatic backlash with Jordan. By July 25, Israel decided to remove the detectors and calm was restored.

6. Dispute over Jordanian detained

In 2019, a dispute broke out between the two countries when Israel detained but initially refused to release two Jordanians it suspected of security transgression, Hiba Labadi and Abdul Rahman Miri. Israel released them only after Jordan recalled its ambassador.

7. Violence at the Israeli Embassy compound in Amman

In July 2017, a violent incident occurred in an apartment within the Israel Embassy compound in Amman that left two Jordanians dead. According to Israel, a Jordanian worker violently stabbed the embassy’s deputy director of security, while moving furniture in his home. The landlord was also present. The security guard defended himself, fatally shooting 16-year-old Mohammad Jawawdeh, and also mortally wounding the landlord, Bashar Kamel Hamarneh.

8. Jordan shuts down Island of Peace

In light of Israeli-Jordanian tensions, King Abdullah in 2019 refused to extend a land lease with Israel that had been an annex to the 1994 peace treaty between the two countries. Under the terms of the deal, privately owned Jewish land near the Sea of Galilee was given to Jordan, but Israelis were allowed to farm the site and tourists could visit what had become known as the Island of Peace.

9. Island of Peace massacre

In 1997, during Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s first term in office, a Jordanian soldier killed seven Israeli school girls who were on a field trip to the Island of Peace. Ahmed Daqamseh was tried and convicted in Jordan, which released him 20 years later in 2017.

10. Failed poison plot by Mossad against Khaled Mashaal in Jordan

A Mossad plot to poison former Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal in Jordan in 1997 was foiled by the country’s security forces, but only after the poison had been injected. Israel gave Jordan the antidote and freed Palestinian prisoners, including Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, in exchange for the release and return of the two Mossad agents.