Israel: Preserving The Peace With Jordan -

Israel: Preserving The Peace With Jordan - By Caroline Glick/JNS.org - https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=3669

 

In recent remarks before a Knesset meeting marking the 25th anniversary of the signing of Israel's peace treaty with Jordan, Netanyahu explained that the basis of Israel's peaceful relations with Egypt and Jordan is not emotional. The Egyptians and Jordanians haven't embraced Israel as a neighbor and friend. Rather, Israel's peace treaties are the products of its deterrent power.

 

In his words, "As long as we are stronger--they are with us. If we become weaker, then the peace agreements will hang by a thread."

 

That means that practically speaking there is little substantive difference between Israel's ties with, say, the UAE, and its ties with Egypt. So long as both perceive Israel as strong and helpful, and impossible to destroy, they will have good relations with it. If Israel becomes a strategic basket case on the other hand, then those relations will rapidly deteriorate.

 

In Egypt's case, the combination of Israeli strength and shared interests in combating Iran and the Muslim Brotherhood improved relations to an unprecedented degree. Acting on these shared interests and his recognition of Israeli power, Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi played a significant role in cultivating ties between the Sunni Gulf states and Israel.

 

'As long as we are stronger--they are with us'

 

Jordan is a different story. While Israel's relations with Egypt have never been better, its relations with Jordan have never been worse. Indeed, Israel's informal ties with Saudi Arabia today are arguably better than its formal ties with Jordan. So what is going on? Is Israel doing something wrong? What does it get out of its ties with Jordan to begin with?

 

The most important advantage Israel gains from its ties with Jordan is a peaceful eastern frontier. But that peaceful border, which is a function of Israel's control of the Jordan Valley on the one hand and of Jordan's actions to secure its border with Israel on the other, predates the peace treaty by more than 20 years.

 

Moreover, given the downward trajectory of bilateral ties, it's hard to know how long Jordan will remain committed to securing the border. From week to week, Jordan's growing hostility towards Israel becomes more difficult to countenance or explain away.

 

Consider the events of the past three weeks.

 

A week ago, the Jordanian armed forces conducted a military exercise led by the elite Royal Guard 1st Mechanized Battalion. It was code-named "Swords of Karameh" after a 1968 battle by the Jordanian town of Karameh between Israel and Fatah terrorists. Jordanian military forces fought alongside Fatah.

 

Jordanian King Abdullah II oversaw the two-day exercise, which included infantry and armor forces along with fighter jets and helicopters. Jordanian Prime Minister Omar Razzazz, government ministers, senior military commanders as well as foreign military attaches also attended the exercise. The "Swords of Karameh" exercise reportedly simulated a battle between Jordanian forces and an invasion force "from the west" which involved defeating the foreign invaders and destroying the bridges they used to cross into Jordan.

 

In other words, it simulated a battle against Israel.

 

It bears noting that on the face of it, the "Swords of Karameh" exercise constituted a material breach of the terms of the peace treaty. The treaty bars the parties from carrying out belligerent acts against one another. Simulating war with Israel, and rushing to publicize the simulation, certainly feels like a belligerent act.

 

Two weeks ago, in remarks to a fawning audience of American Jews in New York, Abdullah said that Jordan's bilateral relations with Israel had reached "an all-time low." He laid the blame for the state of affairs squarely on Israel's shoulders.

 

Three weeks ago, Abdullah and his son prayed at the Tzofar and Naharayim enclaves to celebrate their transfer to Jordan from Israel. Israel was compelled to transfer the enclaves to Jordan after Abdullah breached the spirit of the peace agreement and refused to renew the lease of the lands to the Israeli farmers who own them for an additional 25 years, as the peace treaty presumed he would.

 

This week, the Jordanian State Security Court opened its trial of Israeli national Konstantin Kotov. Kotov is being tried for illegally crossing the border to Jordan on Oct. 29, and for drug possession. Israel expected Jordan to return Kotov to Israel last month parallel to Israel's transfer of two Jordanian nationals it was holding on terrorism charges. That didn't happen.

 

As Jordan has undertaken these hostile actions against Israel, Israel reportedly concluded a new water deal with Jordan. In the 1994 peace treaty, Israel agreed to supply Jordan 50 million metric cubes of water each year. The amount was doubled to 100 million metric cubes a year in 2016. Details of the latest agreement are being kept secret, but it is widely assumed that Israel agreed to increase the amount of water it is supplying to Jordan annually both from its desalination plants and from the Sea of Galilee, yet again.

 

It's easy to understand Israel's seemingly masochistic behavior. Israel wants to preserve peace with Jordan. Peace goes through the Hashemite monarchy, which itself is under constant threat from the Jordanian public. Last year hundreds of thousands of Jordanians participated in anti-regime protests precipitated by the kingdom's poor economic conditions. The protesters compelled King Abdullah to fire his prime minister.

 

Last year's protests terrified the monarchy because they marked the first time that the Bedouin tribes--the backbone of the regime--joined the traditionally anti-regime forces in the Muslim Brotherhood and trade unions to participate in anti-regime demonstrations.

 

Out of genuine concern for the welfare of the regime, Israel is turning the other cheek in the face of repeated abuse and humiliation to help Abdullah and the Hashemite Kingdom survive.

 

While the rationale for Israel's obsequious behavior is clear, the time has come to consider whether it makes sense to continue on this road, or if there are better ways to maintain our ties and perhaps better advance our interests with Jordan.

 

The fact is that Jordan doesn't have much leverage against Israel. It has no economic leverage against it. And with President Trump in the White House and Ambassador Kelly Craft at the United Nations, Jordan has little diplomatic leverage against Israel. The only card it can really play is the perennial "nuclear option"--the threat to abrogate the peace treaty.

 

Israel, on the other hand, has significant leverage against Jordan, and using it doesn't require threatening the peace treaty.

 

On Tuesday, we saw an Israeli politician make rare and effective use of that leverage.

 

On Tuesday morning, a delegation of deputy mayors attending a conference in Eilat tried to cross the border to Jordan for a day trip to Petra. They were stopped at the border by Jordanian authorities. After humiliating them, the Jordanian border guards prohibited the Israeli officials from entering the kingdom because several deputy mayors were wearing tzitzit, a religious garment with ritual fringes that Jewish law requires Jewish males to wear.

 

Recently Jordan instituted a regulation barring Jews wearing or carrying religious attire or articles from entering the kingdom. The men had already hidden their kippot under hats. So the Jordanians stopped them for their tzitzit.

 

After the incident was reported, Israeli Interior Minister Aryeh Deri had the Foreign Ministry inform the Jordanian government that in retaliation for the anti-Semitic policy, he intended to bar Jordanian workers from receiving permits to work in Israel.

 

The Jordanians canceled their anti-Jewish regulation.

 

The fact is that Israel is the guarantor of Jordan's economic survival. The government needs to recognize the power that comes with that distinction.

 

Consider the following. Long-standing water shortages have compelled Israel to use desalinated water as its primary source of both potable and irrigation water. Given the continued water crisis, and its impact on the viability of Israeli agriculture, Israel should reevaluate the quantities of water it is capable of supplying Jordan beyond the 50 million metric cubes it is required to provide under the peace treaty.

 

Under the gas deal Israel concluded with Jordan, Israel agreed to supply Jordan with natural gas nearly at cost. Israel may need to reassess the price given Turkish and Hezbollah threats to its offshore gas fields. Security is expensive.

 

Whereas the Jordanians automatically support every Palestinian provocation, in recent years the Saudis have soured on the Palestinians and have supported Israel against them repeatedly. Given this new state of affairs, it makes sense for Israel to revisit the privileged position Jordanian officials enjoy on the Temple Mount.

 

In light of the region's strategic instability, the Israeli Defense Ministry should have carried out a serious study of the IDF's force size with an eye towards enlarging it years ago. And in light of Jordan's simulation of war with Israel last week, it would be irresponsible to put off conducting such a study any longer.

 

See how leverage works?

 

By all accounts, the peace with Jordan, and the survival of the Hashemite monarchy, are among Israel's key strategic interests. But as Netanyahu rightly noted in his remarks at the Knesset, that peace is not a function of Israel's popularity among the Jordanians. It is predicated on Israel's deterrent power.

 

Jordan's actions over the past several weeks reinforce what has been clear for some time: In its rush to protect Abdullah and the peace, Israel has forgotten to deter Abdullah to preserve the peace. The time has come for Israel to correct its behavior.

 

Europe No Longer Hides Its Hostility To Israel - By Alain Destexhe/Gatestone Institute - https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=3682

 

The European Union has, over the years, become increasingly hostile towards Israel. That attitude was confirmed in early November when the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that food products made in the so-called settlements of East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Golan Heights must be labeled as such and may not carry the generic label "Made in Israel."

 

As rightly argued by the strategic studies expert Soeren Kern, there are many territorial conflicts all over the world, but the European Court singles out only Israel. Examples of the EU's bias against Israel are numerous, particularly compared to the United States.

 

The EU seems deliberately not to recognize that Israel, a sovereign state, is regularly under threat -- even extreme continuous rocket fire from Gaza and Syria -- and, for that reason alone deserves its full support. No country in the world, especially one roughly the size of Vancouver Island, undergoes military attacks as perpetually as Israel does.

 

On November 12 and 13, in under 48 hours, more than 450 rockets and mortars were fired from the Gaza Strip at Israeli towns. Rockets fired from Gaza caused countless damage, injuring at least 63 persons, and reached as far as the Tel Aviv area.

 

Four hundred and fifty rockets in under 48 hours is not a skirmish or a minor attack; it is a large-scale military attack. Any similar attack on France or Germany -- if they received even a single missile -- would have sparked a major crisis.

 

The official EU response was, to say the least, underwhelming:

 

"This morning, Israel conducted an operation inside Gaza targeting a senior leader of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. In response, rockets were fired from Gaza on southern and central Israel. The firing of rockets on civilian populations is totally unacceptable and must immediately stop.

 

A rapid and complete de-escalation is now necessary to safeguard the lives and security of Palestinian and Israeli civilians. As the EU has consistently reiterated, only a political solution can put an end to these continuing cycles of violence".

 

The statement is revealing for many reasons. It fails to mention that Israel had killed a terrorist belonging to an extremist group about to launch another attack. The statement also fails to mention the number of rockets fired on the country, or the right of Israel to defend itself.

 

There are no words about the consequences for the civilian population of Israel. There is no mention of who launched the rockets, or who is fueling this supposed "continuing cycle of violence", and there is no empathy whatsoever for the bombarded people of Israel.

 

By comparison, a US State Department spokesperson tweeted:

 

"The United States stands in solidarity with Israel as Israeli families and cities shelter from rockets fired by Iranian-sponsored Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Israel has every right to defend itself and its citizens."

 

U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman tweeted:

 

"Palestinian Islamic Jihad, an Islamist terrorist org backed by Iran, is again attacking Israel with 100's of missiles aimed at civilians. We stand w our friend & ally Israel at this critical moment & support Israel's right to defend itself & bring an end to these barbaric attacks."

 

In addition, Avi Berkowitz, Assistant to the President and Special Representative for International Negotiations, tweeted:

 

"The U.S. fully supports our partner & ally Israel in their fight against terrorism and the terrorist group, Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ)."

 

The disparity speaks for itself. The United States is a friend of Israel. The European Union is not.

 

When, in 2003, Israel's prime minister at the time, Ariel Sharon, proposed withdrawing all Israelis from the Gaza Strip and leaving the Palestinians to rule the enclave themselves, he apparently thought that giving the Palestinians independence would be positive move for the security of his country.

 

Instead, as mapped out clearly in the Palestine Liberation Organization's 1974 "phased plan " -- to use whatever territory it gets as a launchpad to get more -- the Jewish State has been under constant attack from missiles fired from Gaza and has no choice but to retaliate.

 

The Palestinians in Gaza, for their part, are no longer "occupied"; rather, they now struggle under the rule of Hamas' totalitarian terrorist regime, whose priority remains not the well-being of the people it controls, but the destruction of the State of Israel.

 

On December 6, 2017, President Donald J. Trump announced the United States' recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and, consequently, the relocation there of the US Embassy. European governments and the European Union sharply criticized the US decision and, in a move seemingly both laughable and hypocritical, continue to refuse to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Still, when European heads of state, ministers or ambassadors meet Israeli officials, they go to Jerusalem.

 

Two years ago, during an official meeting, this author was sitting in a room in the Knesset in Jerusalem beside European ambassadors who, according to their government, should not have been there but in Tel Aviv.

 

Whether European governments like it or not, Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. Why should every country in the world be free to choose its capital except Israel? How would a European country react if the international community said that Paris was not the capital of France or Brussels not the capital of Belgium?

 

By denying this reality, the EU has not only failed to bring any "peace" to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians, it also continues to wreck the lives of the Palestinians living there. If the EU's excuse is that it is backing the Palestinians, then why does it remain totally silent about the mistreatment of the Palestinians in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan? The EU's crocodile moral outrage seems only to surface when it can be used as a weapon against Israel.

 

President Trump was careful to leave open the question of the future boundaries of Jerusalem, saying:

 

"We are not taking a position of any final status issues, including the specific boundaries of the Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem, or the resolution of contested borders. Those questions are up to the parties involved."

 

It is a reasonable position. Are the Europeans governments challenging even the fact that west Jerusalem belongs to Israel? Why would the EU wait for a "final settlement" -- which might never happen -- to recognize that Jerusalem is Israel's capital?

 

By the end of August 2018, President Trump decided to stop funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, better known as UNRWA. The European Union immediately rushed to fill the gap. The EU called the US decision "regrettable" and increased its support. In 2018, 50% of the UNRWA's total pledges -- of $1.27 billion -- came from the contributions of EU member states', amounting to $643 million.

 

Officially, UNRWA is a humanitarian agency that professes to provide education, health care and social services to needy Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. UNRWA, however, has regularly been accused of not sticking to a strictly humanitarian role but, instead, of cooperation, if not complicity, with Hamas.

 

UNRWA also gives Palestinians the false hope that they one day will be able to return to family homes in Israel that were left in 1948 before most of the "refugees" were even born. Only a few thousand who were displaced from their homes that year are still alive. Most inhabitants in the Palestinian territories are third- or fourth-generation descendants of displaced people from that war.

 

The EU, however, in its official statements, maintains the fiction that Palestinians in Gaza and elsewhere are "refugees":

 

"For over four decades, the European Union has established itself as a key strategic partner for the Agency, supporting UNRWA in its efforts to help Palestine refugees achieve their full potential in human development despite their difficult circumstances (...) Building on decades of commitment and partnership, the EU has maintained its generous level of support to assist Palestine refugees." [Emphasis added]

 

UNRWA is a politically-oriented organization that contributes to perpetuating the Palestinian refugee problem and the narrative of the so-called "right of return," the goal of which is, in fact, the destruction of Israel. UNRWA should be shut down and its work carried out by other agencies of the UN system, such UNDP and UNICEF.

 

The European Union, in fact, seems proud to be "the biggest donor of external assistance to the Palestinians". Since February 2008, more than �2.5 billion ($2.8 billion) have been disbursed. The EU provides core financial support to the Palestinian Authority (PA), even though part of the PA budget is earmarked for terrorists and terrorists' families, thereby actually incentivizing terrorism.

 

The EU is also a major contributor to helping the PA pay the salaries of civil servants, which could not be accomplished without its support, thereby not only making the PA the world biggest welfare state, but also disincentivizing the PA from becoming more self-sufficient.

 

With the EU's funds, the PA pays the families of imprisoned terrorists in Israel as well as families of terrorists who have been killed, including kamikazes. When the PA had to make cuts in its budget, it stressed that reductions would not apply to salaries "paid to pensioners and families of martyrs, wounded or prisoners."

 

Many Palestinians view these prisoners and those killed while carrying out terror attacks as heroes in their conflict with Israel and venerate them as martyrs. According to the Israeli press, the PA's stipends to imprisoned terrorists each year come to some $138 million.

 

In other words, the EU, which is officially committed to fighting terrorism, supports the Palestinian Authority, which supports terrorists and their families. Just try making sense of that.

 

The Dutch parliament passed a motion on November 19, objecting to providing funding to the Palestinian Authority when some of its budget is earmarked for Palestinian terrorists imprisoned by Israel. By doing so, it not only saved some of Europe's honor, it also sets an example for other European countries.

 

Many Europeans governments pretend to be friends with Israel. They should stop accepting EU policies based on minimum consensus among 28 countries and show more support for Israel, a country surrounded by many enemies and the only democracy in the region. Their support starts by recognizing Jerusalem as its capital.

 

 

 UNGA to condemn Israel 8 times, rest of world 0

GENEVA, Dec. 13, 2019 �  The United Nations General Assembly today will adopt eight resolutions that single out or condemn Israel, and zero on the entire rest of the world.
The texts condemn Israel for "repressive measures" against Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights, renew the mandate of the corrupt UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), and renew the mandate of the UN's "special committee to investigate Israeli practices affecting the human rights of the Palestinian people and other Arabs of the Occupied Territories." (Click here for texts and voting sheets.)

The eight resolutions were previously adopted on November 15th by the General Assembly's Special Political and Decolonization Committee, known as the Fourth Committee. Tomorrow, the votes will be repeated when the General Assembly plenary formally ratifies the texts.
�The UN�s assault on Israel with a torrent of one-sided resolutions is surreal,� said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental watchdog organization.

�Last month, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist group assaulted Israeli civilians with a barrage of 400 rockets � while the UN's General Assembly and Human Rights Council stayed silent. The world body now adds insult to injury by adopting eight lopsided condemnations, whose only purpose is to demonize the Jewish state."
�While France, Sweden and other EU states are expected to support 75% of resolutions to be adopted against Israel by the end of this month, the same European nations have failed to introduce a single UNGA resolution on the human rights situation in China, Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Cuba, Turkey, Pakistan, Vietnam, Algeria, or on 175 other countries," said Neuer.
"However, UN Watch commends the Czech Republic, Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Austria, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Romania, and Slovakia for last week breaking from EU consensus and voting to oppose the UN resolution funding a 16-member anti-Israeli propaganda agency within the UN," added Neuer.
"Now that consensus has been broken, EU states must continue to vote on moral principle."
Earlier this year, 155 German MPs called on the German government to "dissociate from unilateral, primarily politically motivated initiatives and alliances of anti-Israeli Member States, and protect Israel and legitimate Israeli interests from unilateral condemnation� in the UN.

In 2017, the Dutch parliament resolved to �actively oppose UN organizations that devote disproportionate attention to Israel.�
"Last week's vote by the Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, and others illustrates that pressure from lawmakers and regular citizens can change anti-Israel voting patterns. UN Watch will continue to rally the public to call for fairness and equal treatment of Israel in the UN. The EU and other democracies must stop supporting the disproportionate amount and biased nature of the resolutions targeting the Jewish state each year," said Neuer.
�Four of tomorrow's resolutions concern UNRWA � yet none mentions that the agency chief was just fired after top management engaged in what the UN�s own internal probe described as �sexual misconduct, nepotism, retaliation, discrimination and other abuses of authority, for personal gain.� All EU states are complicit in this conspiracy of silence.�
"One of tomorrow's resolutions � drafted and co-sponsored by Syria � falsely condemns Israel for �repressive measures� against Syrian citizens in the Golan Heights. It�s obscene,� said Neuer.
The resolution condemns Israel for holding on to the Golan Heights, and demands Israel hand the land and its people to Syria.
�It�s astonishing,� said Neuer. �After the Syrian regime has killed half a million of its own people, how can the UN call for more people to be handed over to Assad�s rule? The text is morally galling, and logically absurd."
�Tomorrow's resolutions claim to care about Palestinians, yet the UN is oblivious to more than 3,000 Palestinians who have been slaughtered, maimed and expelled by Assad�s forces.�
�Tomorrow's farce at the General Assembly underscores a simple fact: the UN�s automatic majority has no interest in truly helping Palestinians, nor in protecting anyone�s human rights; the goal of these ritual, one-sided condemnations is to scapegoat Israel,� said Neuer.
�The UN�s disproportionate assault against the Jewish state undermines the institutional credibility of what is supposed to be an impartial international body. Politicization and selectivity harm its founding mission, eroding the UN Charter's promise of equal treatment to all nations large and small,� Neuer added.