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Friday, September 19, 2008

Report: Jordan fears Israel is going wobbly

JERUSALEM — Jordan's decision to renew its dialogue with Hamas reflects a growing distrust of Israel, acording to a new report.

Israel's credibility has been called into question the Jerusalem-based Institute for Contemporary Affairs said. The report said Jordan was stunned by Israel's decision to enact a ceasefire with the Hamas regime in June 2008, Middle East Newsline reported. A month later, Jordan, ending a decade-long boycott, agreed to renew talks with Hamas.

"Jordan fears it cannot trust the political will of its traditional allies as Israel has diplomatically engaged Jordan's adversaries — Syria and Hamas," the report, titled Jordan's Outreach to Hamas, said. "Jordan's current policy can best be categorized as a 'distress call,' one that should be heeded by Israel and the West before it is too late."

Author Pinchas Inbari, said Israel's policies have alarmed the Jordanian leadership, who fears the Palestinian majority in the kingdom. At the same time, Inbari, said, Hamas's influence in Jordan and the neighboring West Bank has been rising.

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"Israel's regional policies have thrown Jordan off balance," the report said. "The tahdiya [calm] agreement with Hamas caused great embarrassment to moderate Arab countries and exploded the policy of isolating Hamas. In addition, in its prisoner deal with Hizbullah, Israel agreed to hand over to Hizbullah the bodies of Jordanians. If Israel, for pragmatic reasons, finds it appropriate to engage with Hamas, why shouldn't Jordan do the same?"

The report said Jordanian intelligence renewed contacts with Hamas as early as July 2007. A year later, Hamas leaders were invited to Amman for two rounds of reconciliation talks amid Jordanian concern that the Palestinian Authority would collapse.

"Currently, Jordanian government leaders are concerned with their increasingly precarious situation," the report said. "Iran, its Syrian partner and Hizbullah and Hamas proxies are playing a destabilizing role in the region, while Jordan sees Israel and the United States as currently unwilling to confront them."

Inbari said Jordan's King Abdullah has lost interest in Arab-Israeli peace efforts. The report said the king has been alarmed by what was termed the "lack of political will" by Israel, the United States and other Western states to confront Iran and its proxies, including Hamas and Hizbullah.

Jordan, whose political opposition is led by a Hamas supporter, was expected to expand its dialogue to Hamas to include political issues. The report said Hamas was mulling the prospect of transferring its headquarters from Syria to Jordan.

"Jordan's current engagement of Hamas seems to indicate that [King] Abdullah will pursue a negative and more confrontational posture towards Israel," the report said.



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