The month of Ramadan, which will take place in two months, close to Passover, is supposed to be very tense from a security point of view, especially in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, which is why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu chose to make his first visit as Prime Minister to Jordan and meet with King Abdullah.
The meeting between Netanyahu and Abdullah was the first since their last meeting in 2018.
Netanyahu’s visit came after his meeting with Jack Sullivan, the national security adviser, and before his meeting next week with Foreign Minister Tony Blinken, who will arrive in Israel. The American administration is very concerned about the escalation of relations between Israel and Jordan following Minister Itamar Ben Gvir’s visit to the Temple Mount and the tensions that continue after the mistake of the Jerusalem police who detained the Jordanian ambassador in Israel when he tried to enter the Temple Mount compound last week.
The common interest of Israel and Jordan is to calm the security situation on the Temple Mount as quickly as possible, King Abdullah is very concerned about the security situation in his kingdom and radical Islamic elements are trying to take advantage of the severe economic crisis and the rise in prices to light a fire on the streets of Jordan and destabilize the regime, an escalation on the Temple Mount is like spilling gasoline on the fire.
Since Ben Gvir’s visit to the Temple Mount, voices have increased in the Jordanian parliament to expel the Israeli ambassador from Amman and to open the border with Israel to jihad.
According to political sources in Israel, Prime Minister Netanyahu assured King Abdullah of Jordan, several times during the meeting that lasted several hours , that Israel would not change the status quo on the Temple Mount and would maintain the status of the Muslim Waqf.
The king is also afraid of the possibility that Saudi Arabia will get a foothold on the Temple Mount as part of its normalization agreement with Israel.
Israel and Jordan have a supreme interest, despite their differences, in maintaining regional stability, the Biden administration has forwarded requests in this spirit to Israel and Jordan in recent days, the American administration also estimates that the Palestinian terrorist organizations will try to cause a major escalation during the month of Ramadan as happened in May 2021.
Jordan, which is the custodian of the holy places in Jerusalem according to its peace agreement with Israel, wants to strengthen the position of the Waqf on the Temple Mount. King Abdullah announced three weeks ago his intention to increase the Waqf on the Temple Mount by 100 additional officials, mainly security personnel, the request may have also been discussed in his meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu.
An important factor that can contribute to calming the security situation on the Temple Mount is the Palestinian Authority, which is also involved in religious incitement against Israel, the Biden administration asked PA Chairman Abu Mazen to act for calm during the month of Ramadan.
The situation on the Temple Mount will also be a central issue during the Prime Minister’s visit to Washington next month and his expected visit to the United Arab Emirates.
According to political sources, the issue of the security situation in northern Jordan also came up in the meeting between Prime Minister Netanyahu and King Abdullah, the Syrian regime is involved in large-scale smuggling of drugs and weapons into Jordanian territory, the person who manages this smuggling is General Maher Assad, the commander of Division 4 and the brother of the Syrian president, most of the smuggled weapons reach the West Bank.
The Prime Minister’s meeting with King Abdullah is a joint attempt to open a new page in relations between the two countries, the Biden administration is satisfied with the joint effort of the two leaders to calm the tensions between the two countries, we may also see mutual gestures to contribute to calm.
Political sources in Jerusalem say that Prime Minister Netanyahu will ask Minister Itamar Ben Gvir not to visit the Temple Mount until after the month of Ramadan to prevent the visit from being used as incitement against Israel to lead to a security escalation.
Jordan has not yet announced whether it will participate in the second Negev Conference that is expected to take place in Morocco this March, it has so far avoided participating in two meetings of the Negev Forum that was established to strengthen the normalization between Israel and the Arab countries and the cooperation against the Iranian threat.
