The American administration does not have a new peace plan that it intends to offer to the Palestinians and Israel other than a general idea based on a two-state solution, President Biden understands that this idea is not realistic now and prefers to focus on managing the conflict and improving the economic and humanitarian situation of the Palestinians in the West Bank.
This policy is of great concern to the Palestinian Authority and Jordan, especially in light of the rise of the new right-wing government to power in Israel. Jordan is concerned about unilateral measures by the Netanyahu government that will further distance the idea of establishing an independent Palestinian state, which the Netanyahu government rejects outright.
King Abdullah of Jordan is currently focused on trying to repel every move by the right-wing Israeli government that he sees as something that threatens the interests of the Hashemite Kingdom, the Jordanian king is concerned about the establishment of the new government in Israel, that the Palestinian problem is not at the top of the international agenda and about the succession in the Palestinian Authority.
He fears that the succession battle in the Palestinian Authority does not point to a clear leadership for the Palestinians in the day after Abu Mazen, but to the possibility that a bloody struggle will break out in the West Bank.
According to Jordanian sources, the king has been working secretly with the White House for several weeks in order to clarify his red lines to the Netanyahu government, about three weeks ago, the King appeared on CNN and warned that unilateral measures by the new government in Israel would lead to a conflict with Jordan and a new intifada in the West Bank.
Since the King has remained silent, sources in Jordan say that he is awaiting visits by National Security Advisor Jack Sullivan and Foreign Minister Blinken to Israel, who are supposed to back up the Jordanian position and warn the Israeli government from unilateral steps on the Temple Mount and the West Bank.
Jordanian officials say that King Abdullah is following the deep disputes in Israel regarding the legal reform and hopes that the wave of protest will lead to the advance of the elections or at least to curbing the steps of the right-wing government, in the meantime the king has set the principles and Jordan’s red lines for 2023, Jordan is preparing for a political confrontation with the Netanyahu government.
A. Strict maintenance of Jordan’s position as the guardian of the holy places in Jerusalem, especially the Temple Mount, in accordance with the 1994 peace agreement.
B. Jordanian opposition to any Israeli attempt to give Saudi Arabia a foothold in the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
C. Rejection of any attempt by the Biden administration to adopt clauses from President Trump’s plan of the deal of the century.
D. Jordanian opposition to the expansion of settlements and any move to annex territories on the part of the Netanyahu government.
E. Insisting on the two-state solution and rejecting any Israeli attempt to imply that Jordan is Palestine.
King Abdullah’s immediate strategy is to try and isolate the new right-wing government in Israel and present it to the world as a racist apartheid government. He coordinates this matter with PA Chairman Abu Mazen and supports all Palestinian moves against Israel in the UN arena and the International Court of Justice in The Hague.
The King accepts full support in the Jordanian Parliament for this strategy and the Islamic Labor Party, which is affiliated with the Hamas movement, also exerts pressure on him because of the difficult economic situation in Jordan and the increase in fuel and food prices.
The king also focuses on the issue of the Palestinian problem in order to divert the attention of the Jordanian street from Jordan’s difficult economic problems.
What should be of great concern to Israel is the king’s intention to also act to put a buffer between Israel and the Arab countries with which it has peace and normalization agreements and to try and isolate it, Jordan did not participate in the second gathering of the Negev Conference that took place recently in Abu Dhabi despite the requests of the USA and the countries that are members of this forum .
The assessment of the Jordanian Foreign Ministry is that a difficult year is expected in relations with Israel following the change of government in which there may also be a rupture in the political relations between the two countries.
