Jordan may be the weakest link in Trump’s peace initiative

A report by a former Israeli ambassador in Amman points to the taboo issue of the kingdom’s very stability

Amos Harel | May 22, 2019 | 8:51 AM

Sometimes it takes someone on the outside, a graduate of the Israeli political or military scene, to say what the establishment can’t bring itself to say out loud. The question of the Jordanian regime’s stability has been taboo for years in the Israeli intelligence community. It’s not discussed in the open or in press briefings. When an Israeli leader blurts something out — as Central Command chief Yair Naveh did in 2006 when he expressed concerns about the future of King Abdullah’s regime — the response from the monarchy is caustic and Israel has to atone for the sin with innumerable apologies.

Oded Eran was Israel’s ambassador to Jordan in the second half of the ‘90s. As a senior researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies at Tel Aviv University, he’s deeply familiar with Israel’s latest political analyses and intelligence appraisals on the monarchy. In a Hebrew-language article on the institute’s website, he paints a pretty grim picture.

For years the Hashemite Kingdom withstood the pressures stemming from the upheavals in the Arab world it, but Eran writes that “this picture of stability has cracked, and increasing signs indicate that the pressures and events in the country could seriously destabilize the regime, which would have long-term implications.”

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For full article: http://www.haaretz.com/misc/article-print-page/.premium-jordan-may-be-the-weakest- link-in-trump-s-peace-initiative-1.7273179