Amman (AFP)<\/p>\n
Twenty-five years after the signing of a landmark peace treaty, ties between Jordan and Israel mirror the ebbs and flows of a turbulent region, while many Jordanians still regard the Jewish state as an \"enemy\".<\/p>\n
The Wadi Araba Treaty, inked on 26 October 1994, formally ended decades of war between the two neighbours but the accord faces continual challenges, analysts say.<\/p>\n
\"Israel remains our number one enemy,\" Yazid Khleifat, a 38-year-old civil servant, told AFP. <\/p>\n
\"Israel has displaced millions of our Palestinian brothers and killed thousands of Arabs,\" he added. <\/p>\n
More than half of Jordan's 9.5 million population is of Palestinian descent.<\/p>\n
The largely desert Hashemite kingdom borders Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories where a decades-long conflict has defined the political tremors of the Middle East.<\/p>\n
Jordan -- the only Arab country with Egypt to have a peace treaty with Israel -- administered the West Bank, including mostly Arab east Jerusalem, until the 1967 Six-Day War.<\/p>\n
It remains the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n
\"Despite the peace plan, Israel shows no respect for Jordan's custodianship over the holy sites... and its attempts to Judaise Jerusalem are in full swing,\" said Khleifat.<\/p>\n
\"The issue of custodianship is sensitive for the Hashemites because it touches upon their religious legitimacy,\" said Amman-based political analyst Labib Kamhawi.<\/p>\n
Members of the Hashemite dynasty to which King Abdullah II belongs are direct descendants of the Prophet Mohammed.<\/p>\n
- 'Enemy' of the people - <\/p>\n
King Abdullah II has repeatedly characterised the peace with Israel as \"cold and getting colder\" and warned that Jerusalem was a \"red line\".<\/p>\n
The status of Jerusalem is one of the thorniest issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.<\/p>\n
Israel annexed the city after the 1967 war in a move never recognised by the international community.<\/p>\n
In 2017, US President Donald Trump formally recognised the city as the capital of Israel, a move that angered the Palestinians who see the eastern sector of Jerusalem as the capital of their future state.<\/p>\n
And in a further challenge, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who heads the most right-wing government in Israel's history, has vowed to annex the Jordan Valley.<\/p>\n
\"Israel, with whom we signed a peace agreement 25 years ago, is not the same today,\" said Oraib Rantawi, director of Al Quds Centre for Political Studies.<\/p>\n
\"This is another Israel, ruled by an ultra-nationalist religious streak.\"<\/p>\n
Kamhawi agrees.<\/p>\n
\"The average Jordanian does not accept Israel as a friend or ally but considers it an enemy who has violated Palestine and the holy sites,\" Kamhawi said.<\/p>\n
Youssef Rashad, a 41-year-old who works in marketing, told AFP that Israel \"does not really want peace\".<\/p>\n
\"Jordan respects peace with Israel but Israel... does not want peace to begin with and has used the treaty as a cover to gain time and destroy any bid for a two-state solution\" with the Palestinians, he added. <\/p>\n
Washington, which is pushing for a so-called \"deal of the century\" plan to solve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, has ignored the stalled two-state solution and the right of return for Palestinian refugees. <\/p>\n
Jordan is home to 2.2 million Palestinian refugees registered with the United Nations.<\/p>\n
- 'Ink on paper' -<\/p>\n
Several economic projects were struck between Jordan and Israel in the aftermath of the peace treaty but they have faltered, highlighting the rocky relations between the two neighbours.<\/p>\n
These included the construction of a joint airport, a canal linking the Red Sea and the Dead Sea and an industrial zone.<\/p>\n
\"Most of these projects have remained ink on paper,\" said Rantawi.<\/p>\n
Israel supplies water-parched Jordan with 50 million cubic meters of water a year as well as gas, while trade between the two countries is very modest.<\/p>\n
And although more than 100,000 Israeli tourists visit Jordan each year, only 12,000 Jordanians travelled to Israel in 2018.<\/p>\n
Security and intelligence cooperation, however, remains tightly intertwined.<\/p>\n
Israeli ambassador Amir Weissbrod talked up the two sides' cooperation on security and water, and pointed out that Israeli visits to popular tourist sites in southern Jordan are increasing.<\/p>\n
\"We are trying to find ways to improve relations, both countries can do better,\" he told AFP. \"Jordan is a reliable partner. We are reliable to each other.\"<\/p>\n
But in a further sign of strains, King Abdullah last year announced plans to reclaim sovereignty over two small plots of territory -- Baqura and Ghumar -- leased to Israel under the 1994 peace treaty.<\/p>\n
\"For the first time, there is a signal from King Abdullah II that peace will be adversely affected by what is happening with the Palestinian issue,\" Rantawi said. <\/p>\n
But Rantawi and Kamhawi also warned that the move, which has been welcomed by Jordanians as restoring the kingdom's \"dignity\", could spark more tensions between the two countries.<\/p>\n
2019 AFP<\/p>\n
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Jordan's 25-year peace with Israel 'cold and getting colder' - FRANCE 24<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Amman (AFP) Twenty-five years after the signing of a landmark peace treaty, ties between Jordan and Israel mirror the ebbs and flows of a turbulent region, while many Jordanians still regard the Jewish state as an \"enemy\". Continue reading