Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - In politics and diplomacy one should never say things have a way of maintaining their own. While countries such as the US, those in Europe and even Russia and China may have once thought relations between Jordan and Israel would continue to be relatively stable, what has been happening on the ground recently is baffling.

Extremists and hot-heads are today re-wiring relations between Amman and Tel Aviv with knockout contests and follow-ups in the Israeli Knesset and Jordan’s Lower House of Parliament. At the centre of dispute is Jordan’s custody of the Al Aqsa Mosque, Dome of the Rock and other holy sites.

Suddenly they have been thrown into the limelight in a sort of tag-fight between the two countries.
The wrangling started when extremist Likud member Moshe Feiglin proposed a draft to be discussed in the Israeli Knesset allowing Jews entry into the Islamic compound and praying there as they wished, dismissing the fact, which is also acknowledged by Jewish theology, that is a sacred place for Jews which they should not enter and/or disturb.

The action by Fieglin stiffened the back of Jordanian politicians. Under the dome of the Lower House they became livid, seeing his draft resolution as an attack on Jordanian custodianship and a means to strip it of its role as a protector of the Muslim holy places in Occupied Jerusalem, which Israel illegally annexed in 1967.

Two full sessions in the Lower House were designated to discuss what was seen as a very dangerous precedent on the part of Israel to take Occupied Jerusalem officially as their own. In the first session, 47 deputies called for revoking the Jordan-Israel peace treaty of October 1994 in protest. They called on the government to implement the resolution or they would move for a vote of no-confidence on it.

The second resolution made a day later was to expel the Israeli ambassador in Amman and the recall of the Jordanian ambassador in Tel Aviv as a means of political pressure. In the session 86 out of the 150 members of the Lower House made their voice heard and voted for the resolution.

Major foreign policy issue
This was indeed a first in Jordanian politics tackling a major foreign policy issue head on. If it was argued the Jordanian Lower House had no teeth and the deputies were just a rowdy lot, the debates on Israel and Occupied Jerusalem put an end to that. The two resolutions against Israel demonstrated that Jordanian politicians can pull together great political muscle.

Indeed the Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour and the government were also forced to make a stand. Ensour stressed any Israeli move on Occupied Jerusalem and Al Aqsa compound would be an infringement of the 1994 Jordan-Israeli peace agreement since it was the treaty that spelt out Jordanian custody and responsibility for administering the Muslim holy places. Ensour said Tel Aviv can’t just pick and choose which parts of the treaty it wants to implement, and if this continues, Jordan will definitely call for a review of it, a view demonstrated by Jordanian government spokesman Mohammad Al Momani. He warned these kinds of debates in the Knesset will destroy the peace treaty.

“The Jordanian custodianship is not a privilege granted by Israel. It is the Hashemites’ historic responsibility that is emphasised in the peace treaty,” he said as blatantly and forthrightly as possible.

A vocal chamber clamouring for the cancellation of the Jordan-Israeli treaty and the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador in Amman harks back to the old days, pre-peace era when Israel was isolated from its geographical context. If it tinkers with the treaty this time it will face Hamas next door, Hezbollah, Syria and Iran, a dissatisfied Turkey, a disgruntled Jordan, a chaotic Egypt and a weary Saudi Arabia.

All these may have been factors in the calculation of Likud Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other Israeli politicians who quickly adjourned the Knesset session and a no-vote taken on the Feiglin resolution and closed the parliamentary books for the time being.

But could this be really called a climb-down by Israel. While Jordanian deputies may pat themselves on the back and say they thwarted another grand design on Occupied Jerusalem and frustrated Zionist attempts to change the status of Jordanian custody, Israel has never acted on whims alone. Its actions have always been calculated and designed for specific objectives and reactions and not to collateral damage as is the case when it goes for all out wars.

The Israeli government does not need to entertain another adventure on the Islamic holy places in Occupied Jerusalem simply because it is already attempting to Judize the city, especially the Arab part of the holy city were the Al Aqsa Mosque is located in.

It’s already continuing to build Jewish colonies and neighbourhoods amongst the Arab population so as to disperse them and make them a minority that would simply fizzle out. This is the real threat that is being played on the ground through devious and conspiratorial tactics.

The Jordanian deputies and government were right to put the pressure on as safeguarding Jordan’s custodial role, but in the end what needs to be realised is the Israeli government is continuing an insidious plan to Judize the whole of the city through populating it with Jewish colonies and colonialists under the very noses of the helpless Arab population who are constantly being denied the rights to live in the city and hopefully leave by themselves.

Thus going after Jordan’s custodial role is only a small part of an Israeli grand design which Arab and Muslim countries and the world need to realise.

Marwan Asmar is a commentator based in Amman. He has long worked in journalism and has a Phd in Political Science from Leeds University in the UK.

*Gulf News