WarSclerotic

By: Mudar ZahranPublished: November 25th, 2014

via The Jewish Press » » Who Is Setting the West Bank on Fire?.

Recently, both, the West Bank and Jerusalem witnessed a level of violence unseen since the last Intifada. The main question here is: Why now?

The West Bank and Jerusalem were relatively calm during the last Gaza war in which over 1,900 Palestinians were killed. So, why is the unrest now, when there is no outstanding driver of Palestinians’ anger? Therefore, it’s safe to say the unrest was possibly planned rather than a reaction to a certain incident or provocation.

To answer the question above; one has to wonder:”Who is benefiting from the violence?”.

I prayed in Al-Aqsa almost every day I was in Jerusalem last summer, and I could confirm the daily routine: Non-Muslims, Jews, Christians or others, are allowed to visit the premises until 11:00 am, after that only Muslims are allowed to enter. Jews have entered Al-Aqsa as visitors for decades, where they are not allowed to pray by the Israeli authorities. This did not change in the last few weeks.

Nonetheless, suddenly the Palestinian, Jordanian and Qatari media(Aljazeera) began reporting on a daily basis:”Israeli settlers storm Al-Aqsa”.

In addition to the media’s messages, suddenly banners and posters started popping up across the West Bank and Jerusalem:”Jews are attacking Al-Aqsa, will you get angry?”, and around the same time those appeared violence began.

Surprisingly to some, Jordan’s king’s media launched an anti-Israeli campaign urging “a third Intifada for Al-Aqsa”. Why would the king do that?

Jordan’s king’s apologists usually claim the king lets his media demonize Israel and incite our young men to fight it just because “He wants to verbally appease his people who hate Israel”, only this time, this excuse won’t stick at all: The king’s media began inciting and calling for an Intifada long before any unrest in the West Bank or Jerusalem. A thorough and honest examination of Jordanian media would show mountains of evidence of that.

Needless to say, Jordan’s media is closely controlled by the king’s media office and his intelligence department.

In short, the king wanted this to happen. But did his role stop just with media incitement? Let’s see.

The unrest began with Hamas and Muslim Brotherhood members in Jerusalem, and the king has a least-known influence over those. Here’s how: The king in is full alliance with Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood (MB). While this might shock many, the king’s former Minister of Political Reform, Bassam Hadadeen, said it live on Aljazeera: “The MB is a part of the Hashemite regime”.

In November 2012, when we, Jordan’s seculars, launched the largest revolution in Jordan’s history, the MB’s leaders told the media on 20 November 2012:”We have chosen to reform the regime and not let it fall”, and their members even attacked and terrorized the peaceful anti-King protesters.

While Egypt, Saudi Arabia and UAE have declared the MB as a terrorist organization, Jordan king allows the MB as a registered charity, with a licensed political party and a trust fund of investments worth $2 billion. Also, he openly refused to ban the MB despite Saudi pressure, to the point where Al-Quds Al-Arabi newspaper reported “Egypt’s Sisi was not eager to deal with Jordan’s king because of his support to the MB”.

In an interview with the Atlantic’s Jeffery Goldberg, the king didn’t deny his alliance with the MB, and said there was only “A 10 percent distrust from me, and 10 percent distrust from them”.

Hamas falls under Jordan’s MB in hierarchy, and all of Hamas’ top leaders are Jordanian citizens. Therefore, it is unlikely that the unrest was against the king’s wishes, because he could have stopped it, or at least reduced it if he wanted.

But why is Jordan’s king doing all of this? Despite the media not covering Jordan; the king is very unstable, just last week locals of central Amman surrounded the king’s palace three time in a row (This was documented by Jordan’s media itself). Both the majority of Palestinian origins and the East Bankers openly exhibit hatred and disrespect to the king. Gun battles between the king’s police and locals of Maan, South, have been ongoing for the last nine months; this is all documented.

Seeking to export his problems to someone else, the king knows that unrest in Israel, or an Intifada, could deter Jordanians’ anger from the king towards Israel, and also highlight his role as “peace mediator” between Israel and the Palestinians.

Further, Jordan’s king has a close partnership with the Palestinian Authority’s president Abbas. Abbas, a Jordanian citizen himself, has been collaborating with Jordan’s king on all major aspects Kerry’s peace plan, the Palestinian statehood bid and now the situation in Al-Aqsa.

Unrest in the West Bank and Jerusalem helps Abbas and Abdullah in defusing their people’s anger, gaining political momentum and appearing as the “only moderates in town” before the US administration.

Their tactics have worked; Netanyahu flew to Amman to meet Abdullah and Kerry to resolve the trouble in Jerusalem, thus Abdullah reinforced himself as “the custodian of holy places of Jerusalem.” Abdullah’s media portrayed the whole thing as a massive victory for Abdullah, and even confirmed:”Netanyahu will visit the king again to plea for Jordan’s ambassador returns to Tel Aviv”.

In short, Abdullah and Abbas won this round.

Jordanian opposition figure, Emad Tarifi– whose father was one of the founders of the PLO–told me:”Abbas is just a student of Jordan’s king’s agendas… “,”Abbas is in trouble; he threatened to take Israel to the International Criminal Court, and instead, Israel ended up taking him there..no Palestinian likes or respects him”, “The king is in the same position”, therefore, “They need the unrest [in Israel] to save themselves”.

Tarifi’s claims ring true: days ago Jordan’s king’s senior advisors organized a festival in Amman to commemorate Arafat’s anniversary, Palestinian attendees started calling Abbas names and accusing him of being “a puppet of Jordan’s king”.

As it seems, Jordan’s king and Abbas are in bed together, seeking to cause unrest in order to gain while Jordanians, Palestinians and Israelis lose.

This could have never happened if Jordan’s king feared any concussions-from Israel’s lobby in the US for example- but he knows that may never happen!

The unrest has not ended, and more trouble might be ahead for all of us as long as Jordan’s king and Abbas have an interest in it and could get away with it.

In short, Jordan and the PA are setting the West Bank ablaze with their tactics, and Israeli and Palestinians are paying the price.

Mudar Zahran is the Secretrary General of the Jordanian Coalition of Opposition, a known Jordanian- Palestinian politician and writer, who now resides in the UK as a political refugee. Zahran’s writing regularly appear in Arab, Israeli and American publications.