The 25th anniversary of Israel’s peace agreement with Jordan
There is no love lost between Israel and Jordan. The peace between the two countries is a cold peace. Which sure beats a hot war.
This cold peace has frozen out of the collective memory of many Jews the bitter suffering that Israel suffered from Jordan. Israel’s longest border is with Jordan. It was that “border” that facilitated repeated terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians in the 1950s and 1960s. Jordan, despite the elegance bestowed upon it internationally by its plucky King Hussein and his beautiful American wife, was, and remains, a reservoir of hatred for Israel. Except that now, the border is a real border. It stops terrorists, thanks to the peace treaty between the two countries, and thanks to Israel’s control of the Jordan Valley adjacent to the Jordan River.
Ask for a definition when you hear the term“Israeli occupation.” Most apply it to the entire West Bank, but others demarcate between Israel’s presence in the West Bank and Israel’s presence along that sliver of the West Bank that borders the Jordan River. The settlements along that sliver of land were devised strictly for defensive purposes by the lefti-wing Zionists who controlled Israel’s government, 1967-1977. No Israeli leader, including all those on the left, wanted the Jordan River Valley once again to be the easy pathway for terrorists into Israel. No major Israeli leader today wants Israel to leave the Jordan Valley.
Jordan remains hostile to Israel not because Jordan covets the Jordan Valley. Long ago, Jordan renounced all interest in all of the West Bank, washing its hands of any responsibility for those Arabs on the West Bank who call themselves “Palestinians” (as opposed to Jordanian citizens). Rather, Jordan’s hostility to Israel derives from Israel’s sovereignty over the Muslim holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem, which, by a typical Middle East logic chop, Jordan still controls. This is the same Jordan that rejected Israel’s call in June, 1967 not to go to war with Israel, but that lost those holy places when it opted to go to war against Israel. Start the war. Lose the war. Still, demand the spoils of the war: That’s the Jordanian stance. This, despite the fact that Israel is scrupulous not to interfere with Jordan’s de facto operation of the Muslim holy places — unless the Muslim authorities there use these sites to plan terrorist or other attacks on Israel. Then Israel intervenes. Then Jordan denounces Israel. Thus, the cold peace. Go figure.
Out of diplomatic etiquette, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo saluted the Israel-Jordan treaty on its 25th anniversary, Oct. 26, in grandiose terms. The treaty began “a tradition of peaceful and respectful cooperation that continues today,” said Pompeo. It is the occasion “to praise the enduring efforts of our two allies and friends to find common ground and build a productive and stable relationship for the mutual benefit of the Jordanian and Israeli people.”
We wish it were true. But diplomatic lies are infinitely better than war. We’ll take a cold peace any time.
Copyright © 2019 by the Intermountain Jewish News
