Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on December 11, 2020

Dec 6, 2020

Israeli Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi met Dec. 3 with his Jordanian counterpart Ayman Safadi at the Allenby Bridge border crossing.

The Jordanians are said to have asked for the meetingin order to discuss some practical matters. The list of issuesthat came up in the meeting was quite long. A statement issued by the Jordanian Foreign Ministry said the two men talked about "a number of pending concerns, including water, lifting restrictions on Jordanian exports to the West Bank, Jordanian provision of additional electricity to the Palestinian Authorityand organizing movement through border crossings in light of their closure due to the coronavirus pandemic."

The Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed the meeting, but refused to give any more details. Still, reports claimed that Safadi raised the possibility of Israel renewing talks with the Palestinians under the auspices of the new American administration.

Reports further said that Safadi asked Ashkenazi for the Israeli take on the latest Palestinian initiativefor a regional peace summit with Jordan and with Egypt. Some see this as a sort of a Palestinian counterreaction to Israels rapprochement with Gulf states. This issue of a regional summit was raised by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas two days earlier, when he visited Amman and met with King Abdullah II.

But there was one more issue that Safadi raised with Ashkenazi that of the Temple Mount compound (Haram al-Sharif).

Under the 1994 peace agreement between the two countries, and with the agreement of the Palestinians, the site is administrated by the Waqf Muslim religious authorities, under Jordanian custodianship. As such, Amman has a special role and control over the holy place.

In the past two years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has made several statements about Jerusalem, raising some fears in Amman about Turkeys ambitions with regardto Jerusalem and the Temple Mount. The recent normalization agreements between Israel and the Emirates and Bahrain, and Israelirapprochement efforts with Saudi Arabia, further increased Jordanian fears over maintaining its special status as custodian. Political analysts say Amman worries aboutan Israeli-Saudi dealwhere Riyadh would agree to normalization in exchange for some hold over the Temple Mount compound.

These Jordanian concerns first arose after the Aug. 13 announcement by US President Donald Trump about the normalization of ties between Israel and the Emirates. On Aug. 17, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the issue of the Al-Aqsa Mosque; he said special arrangements will be made for Muslims from the Emirates and Bahrain to enable them to pray there safely. Israeli, Jordanian, Palestinian and Emirati representatives discussed the issue in mid-November, reaching a compromise. The Emirati tourists and pilgrims would enter the compound from the eight gates reserved for Palestinian and Jordanian worshippers.

Still, this compromise seems to have done little to reassure the Jordanians. Shortly after the Nov. 22 meeting between Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman,Abdullah spoke on the phone with US President-elect Joe Biden. After the phone call, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry stated it rejects any alleged attempts to alter the historical and legal status quo at the Temple Mount. MinistryspokesmanDaifallah al-Fayez said,The kingdom will continue its efforts to protect and care for the mosque, and preserve the rights of all Muslims to it in compliance with the Hashemite custodianship of Jerusalems Muslim and Christian holy sites.

In parallel, Palestinian reports accused Israel of agreeing for Saudi Arabia to establish some charity structures in Jerusalem, not unlike how Turkey has been operating in recent months in the east of the city. The reportsalso claimed that Israel would agree for there to be Saudi representatives within the Waqf administration. While none of these reports were confirmed, their mere publication attests to the level of concern in Ramallah and in Amman.

Jordan raised the issue publicly at a UN General Assembly meeting Dec. 2, where the plenum discussed annual anti-Israeli resolutions. A representative of the Jordanian delegation warned that Israel is attempting to impose a fait accompli on Al-Aqsa Mosque and Jerusalem, adding that Jerusalems holy sites will remain the focus of Jordanian care and guardianship. Israels envoy to the UN, Gilad Erdan, categorically denied these allegations.

An Israeli diplomatic source told Al-Monitor that Jerusalem is well aware of these concerns and by no means wants to further destabilize its delicate relations with Amman. On the other hand, Jerusalem has a strong desire tomake future tourists from the Gulf feel at home in Israel. Unlike Israel's peace with Jordan and with Egypt, where tourism is one-sided (the great majority of touristsare Israelis visiting both countries, not the other way around), normalization with Bahrain and the Emirates could generate waves of Arab pilgrims and tourists to Israel.

There are also some silver linings to the Israeli-Jordan talks. In April, Israeli farmers left for the last time the Tsofar agricultural enclave, which they hadcultivated for 25 years. Jordan refused to renew the lease because of the tensions between the two countries. It was a bitter negotiation episode, which lasted several months. Jordan refused to compromise, and the land was handed back. Still, with thatissue settled, some thought Amman might be willing to open a new diplomatic page with Jerusalem.

Afirst encouraging sign came Oct.8, when Israeli and Jordanian civil aviation authorities signeda new aviation agreement, enabling commercial flights to cross the airspace of both countries. Still, the Israeli diplomatic source warnedthat the road to warmerties between Amman and Jerusalem is still long. In any case, he said, nothing much is expected to happen before Jan. 20, when Biden is sworn in.

In July, France and Germany discussed withEgyptian and Jordanian representatives an initiative for relaunching the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Once Biden is sworn in, the Europeans might bring this idea up again. Clearly, any progress on the Israel-Palestinian track would reassure Amman about Jerusalems intentions.

More:

Israeli, Jordanian foreign ministers meet, with plenty of issues on their agenda - Al-Monitor

Category: Ashkenazi
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