Lebanon today, Jordan tomorrow?

An Israeli businessman close to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said, “What we see in Lebanon today will happen in Jordan next.” Roni Mizrahi made his belligerent comment on an Israeli TV channel.

His words are reminiscent of what Netanyahu himself has said, as well as other politicians, military personnel and rabbis. Many have talked about the Jordanian solution, the alternative homeland, the forced displacement of the Palestinians from the West Bank, and the Palestinian Kingdom in Jordan. We can’t say that we haven’t been warned.

On Monday, Netanyahu appeared on the Jordan/Palestine border on a field visit to follow up on the project to build a barrier along the border with the Hashemite Kingdom. Between Netanyahu’s field visit and his businessman friend’s words about Jordan, doesn’t it look as if the kingdom is the missing front in the Gaza war?

After the killing of three Israeli soldiers by Jordanian truck driver Maher Al-Jazi at the King Hussein Bridge Border Crossing on 8 September, there was open talk about the seventh front in the Gaza war, to be added to the resistance fronts in Iraq, Yemen, Gaza, Lebanon, Syria and the West Bank. Jordan is a difficult and unmanageable front, though, as the Jordanians are rooted in their land, and their dignity does not allow compromise and bargaining. They have an underlying energy for sacrifice in defence of Palestine, Jordan, their existence and their destiny.

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What does Israel have in store for Jordan?

Netanyahu and his friend are not just ordinary people in the occupation state. The prime minister has already received the green light from the extreme right lobbies and forces in Israel and beyond to implement his project for so-called “Greater Israel”.

Before the Gaza war, Netanyahu was consumed by chronic hatred of Jordan, along with a hidden desire to include the kingdom within the vocabulary of the settler-colonial project. He wants to see Jordan part of the land of Israel. This is no secret, albeit Netanyahu and the extreme far-right Jewish settlers have not made it public per se. However, in his book A Place Under the Sun, Netanyahu spoke frankly about the Israeli Biblical project, Greater Israel, and the fate of Jordan in this vision.

Roni Mizrahi’s words, not Netanyahu’s visit to the border with Jordan, require an official response from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Amman, as well as the Jordanian media. The status of the Jordan-Israel relationship has reached a point where it is beyond diplomacy; Netanyahu’s words and actions are basically a declaration of war against the kingdom. What will Jordan’s response be?

I do not think that the Jordanian people will keep quiet about any Israeli plan to eliminate the kingdom and its national identity. They have no choice but to develop a strong national front internally, both socially and politically, to stand up to Israeli provocations.

What other choice do the officials in Jordan have? The 1994 Wadi Araba peace treaty is all but forgotten. The kingdom needs new options and new policies that protect Jordanian interests and curtail Israeli-Zionist ambitions. If “Lebanon today, Jordan tomorrow?” is the question, Amman needs to have the answer ready.

This article first appeared in Arabic in Arabi21 on 23 September 2024

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The views expressed in this article belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial policy of Middle East Monitor.