Jordan’s stability is necessary for Palestinians, Arabs alike

Whoever knows Jordan knows that its fate is tied to the Palestinians. It cannot abandon the open Palestinian wound and does not even want to. The establishment of the two-state solution is in Jordan’s interest. Keeping the bleeding wound open makes worry a daily part of life in Jordan.

The fate of Jordan and the Palestinians are interlocked and cannot be broken. Whoever knows King Abdullah knows that the two-state solution is a fixed article on the agenda of all the meetings he holds with guests and in his vast network of international relations.

Jordan believes the two-state solution is necessary to end the injustice the Palestinians have had to endure for centuries. It believes it is necessary for the stability of Jordan and to repel extremism. It believes that the two-state solution is a Palestinian, Jordanian, Arab and international need. The persistence of the conflict will keep the threat of instability alive. It forces the countries involved to deplete their resources in helping ease or deepen their concerns.

Jordan believes that the two-state solution is a condition for building stability in a region that has been on edge since the establishment of Israel. A Palestinian state will fortify the region against projects that rely on the Palestinian oppression in order to achieve agendas related to expanding influence or strengthening roles.

The world committed a grave sin when it did not rush to douse the flames of the war on Gaza

Ghassan Charbel

The truth is that the world committed a grave sin when it did not rush to douse the flames of the war on Gaza. By “the world,” we mean major influential countries and others involved in the war. It was never a secret that the war on Gaza is bigger than Gaza and that leaving the war raging for nearly a year now only raises the risks in other regional arenas.

The war took a more horrific turn when the Israeli army decided to uproot resistance hubs in the West Bank. The scenes of the open massacre underway in Gaza are fueling rage across the region. Whoever has followed past Israeli-Palestinian clashes is not at all surprised that the systematic killing and destruction is threatening to spark conflicts beyond Gaza.

The most dangerous aspect of Sunday’s King Hussein Bridge incident, which left three Israelis dead, is that it took place while a reckless, extremist Israeli government is in power. This government believes that the current confrontation must end with a knockout blow. Advocates of this position believe that Israel cannot accept a solution that could leave the possibility of a new war erupting in the future.

This is why Israel is trying to take Gaza out of the equation and turn it into a pile of rubble where life is not possible. It has also now turned to the West Bank to strike fear into its residents of the possibility that the horrors in Gaza could be replicated in their homes and villages, so that Israel can impose a new status quo on the ground.

No less dangerous is the Israeli opposition’s inability to oust Benjamin Netanyahu, whom it accuses of prolonging the war. This internal failure has been accompanied by an external one. The Biden administration in the US has been incapable of reining in Netanyahu or of organizing a coup against him. Netanyahu is growing more extreme and he is taking America along with him, to the brink of a regional war that Washington has so far averted.

The Netanyahu government is acting as though the current war is an existential one and that it believes the human and financial losses and the harm to Israel’s international and regional relations are therefore justified. Netanyahu has managed to make Israel wage a long war, when it was used to waging short ones. He has effectively managed to embroil Israel in a multifront war that has reached Yemen and Iran. It is an open war that has included costly assassinations in Beirut and Tehran.

Jordan sensed the rising danger as Israel moved its war on Gaza to war on the West Bank

Ghassan Charbel

The incident on the King Hussein Bridge took place amid this strained climate. Israel can exploit the incident to tighten its grip on the West Bank and isolate it even further as it continues to reel from the raids by Israeli tanks, drones and bulldozers.

We can say that the Netanyahu government viewed Operation Al-Aqsa Flood as a declaration of war, not an attempt to pressure it to hold a prisoner swap. Since the operation, it has sought to highlight Iran’s role in the current confrontation in order to avoid dealing with the essence of the Palestinian conflict. It has framed the operation as an attempt to uproot the Israeli state by the Palestinians, with the backing of Iran and Hezbollah and all other members of the so-called Axis of Resistance. So, Israel decided to launch a war against the Palestinians, going beyond a response to or punishment for Al-Aqsa Flood.

Since the beginning of the destructive war on Gaza, Jordan has sounded the alarm on the dangers of the spillover of the conflict in the region. It has coupled its warnings with constant relief efforts and mounting condemnations of Israeli policies. Jordan sensed the rising danger as Israel moved its war on Gaza to war on the West Bank. Its concerns are not limited to fear over the displacement of West Bank residents, but extend to the fear that Israel will impose new realities on the ground that will make the two-state solution impossible. This means eliminating the Palestinian cause and ending all hope, leaving open confrontation as the only available option.

Jordan is aware that it is being targeted. It has long resisted Israeli calls to resolve the Palestinian problem at its expense. It is being targeted because it shares the longest border with Israel. It is being targeted because it has opted for moderation in its regional and international relations and because it is firmly committed to the freedom of its decision-making, shunning geographic and regional pressure, including from Iran.

It is no exaggeration to say that Jordan’s stability is a Palestinian and a Jordanian need alike. A stable Jordan will help end the oppression against the Palestinians. A stable Jordan is a pressing Arab need because an absence of this stability would create a major and dangerous imbalance in regional equations.

Jordan is an example of living amid dangers. Its realistic policies and constant maintenance of international relations have protected it, so has its united security institution, which has been trained in living amid regional fires.

• Ghassan Charbel is editor-in-chief of Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper. X: @GhasanCharbel

This article first appeared in Asharq Al-Awsat.