Friday, July 26, 2013

Will The Next Crisis To Confront Israel Come From Jordan?


Israel’s Eastern Front, The Coming Storm -- Mudar Zahran, Jerusalem Post

Amid uncertainty on Israel-Jordan border, one thing will be certain if and when the king falls: Jordan’s next ruler will be a Palestinian.

Israel has enjoyed calm borders with Jordan for over four decades. While Israel’s military superiority and alert borders guards are the main reasons for that, still, the Hashemite regime in Amman has managed to keep anti-Israel forces at bay, an advantage for which Israel has given much in return to Jordan’s king and his late father.

But will this arrangement remain the same with the tsunami of the Arab Spring? The facts on the ground suggest Jordan is anything but stable. Upon the king’s return from his recent visit to the US, tribal fights broke out in Ma’an, Jordan’s largest governorate in the area. Four people were killed in cold blood on the campus of Ma’an’s university and all hell broke loose. Now Ma’an residents are claiming “independence from the Hashemite regime”; videos leaked on YouTube and even appearing in Jordanian media show raging gun battles between Jordan’s army and tribal Jordanians in the south. The last police post was declared “liberated” by Ma’an’s locals on June 24.

Read more ....

My Comment: I am skeptical that the King of Jordan is that vulnerable. While it is true that most Jordanians would probably like to see him gone, the king does have the support of another Royal family (Saudi Arabia) .... and I suspect that they will move heaven and earth to make sure that King Abdullah and his Royal Family continue to rule Jordan because if he goes .... the Royal family of Saudi Arabia will then fear that they will be next.

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