The center of the country was woken up early on Sunday to the sound of sirens and the boom of a ballistic missile courtesy of Yemen’s Houthis.
Attacks like this are commonplace in the North, emanating from Hezbollah in Lebanon; and until the IDF weakened Hamas’s capabilities in Gaza since the war began on October 7, the South was also rife with rockets. Despite those efforts, rockets were still fired at Ashkelon at the weekend.
The Houthi attack is certainly worrisome and raises the possibility of a new front for Israel, but as immediate as it is, it’s unfortunately not the only potential point of contention that our security honchos must keep an eye on.
Israel’s ties with Jordan have always been fraught with a chilly veneer and the war in Gaza has only exacerbated the relationship. Most recently, last week’s deadly terrorist attack at Allenby Crossing that left three Israelis murdered underscored the continued specter of hate directed at Israel from across its eastern border.
As The Jerusalem Post’s Seth J. Frantzman pointed out last week that in the last two years, smuggling of weapons, materials used in explosives, and drugs from Jordan to the West Bank has increased greatly. Iran is behind some of the activities aimed at destabilizing the Kingdom as it moves weapons and threats closer to Israel.
But, while terror attacks against Israel by Jordanians have been sporadic since the peace agreement with the Hashemite Kingdom was forged in 1994, and the anti-Israel rhetoric emanating from Amman surrounding the Palestinian issue and Jerusalem, especially Temple Mount, has been ceaseless and there has been relative calm between the two countries.
How are Israel and Jordan cooperating?
Undoubtedly, security cooperation between Israel and Jordan goes far deeper than what we know, with reports of Israel often providing the royal palace with information about possible insurgency within Jordan.
Our neighbor to the east has long faced challenges with internal threats. With a majority Palestinian population, the country has faced off against Palestinian terrorist groups that sought an overthrow in the 1960s and 70s.
Jordan, under the late King Hussein, gave up its claims over the West Bank in 1988 as part of the process that led to the Oslo peace agreement, and the creation of the Palestinian Authority. Even so, it still sees itself as the custodian of the Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.
With Hussein’s son, Abdullah II, in power, Jordan seeks to placate the Palestinian population by publicly criticizing Israel and allowing incitement against the Jewish state, even as it seeks to be a regional island of stability.
But stable, it apparently isn’t. Chocking it up as a referendum against Israel in the Gaza war, Jordan’s Islamist opposition made significant gains in last week’s parliamentary election.
The Islamic Action Front, the political party representing the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, won 31 out of the 138 seats in the country’s House of Representatives – with over 500,000 votes. This is a striking achievement for Islamists, who view themselves as an opposition party. They gained 10 seats in 2020 and decided in past elections to boycott the political process altogether.
On national TV, Jordanian analysts lauded the election process and outcomes as proof that Jordan’s people stand with ‘Palestine,’ and especially with Hamas in Gaza.
Morad Al-Adilah, a senior member of the Muslim Brotherhood, said the election war a referendum on the Gaza war. He cited comments by Israel’s National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir about building a synagogue on Temple Mount as a reason the voters turned out in greater numbers for the election.
On Sunday, the situation grew even more precarious when Jordan’s Prime Minister Bisher Khasawneh reportedly submitted his resignation.
According to analysts, the more vocal Islamic-led opposition could challenge IMF-led free-market reforms and foreign policy that Khasawneh touted.
The recent news from Jordan should be a red alert sign to Israel, just as it surely is to Amman. Until now, Israel’s cooperation with the Hashemite kingdom has helped keep it safe from internal threats.
The results of last week’s election magnify how serious a threat Israel could face from the east if the radical Islamists gain more power and threaten Abdullah’s reign.
As Israel faces continued threats from Hezbollah, Hamas, and now the Houthis, helping Jordan to fend off its own threats is vital to Jerusalem’s interests.
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