RUTHFULLY YOURS

The Jordanian authorities have accused the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoot, Hamas, of seeking to destabilize security inside the kingdom. The accusation came in the aftermath of recent demonstrations in the capital Amman and other parts of Jordan in support of Hamas and in condemnation of Israel. The demonstrators are demanding that Jordan shut down the Israeli embassy and cut all ties with Israel.

Behind both Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, of course, is the terrorist-sponsoring emirate Qatar and its propagandizing television bullhorn, Al-Jazeera.

The Jordanian authorities and government officials, however, do not seem to understand that they are directly responsible for destabilizing their own security by continuously inciting against Israel. Since the beginning of the Hamas-Israel war in October 2023, Jordanian leaders and government representatives have ramped up their anti-Israel rhetoric, paving the way for an outbreak of protests against Israel, especially in Amman.

It is worth reminding critics of Israel that the war erupted after thousands of Hamas terrorists invaded Israeli communities on October 7, murdering 1,200 Israelis, wounding thousands more, and kidnapping more than 240 others, half of whom are still being held hostage inside the Gaza Strip. Some of the Israeli victims were beheaded, mutilated, burned alive and raped by the Hamas terrorists. US President Joe Biden declared the attack equivalent to “fifteen 9/11s”

Jordan’s leaders have yet to condemn Hamas for launching the war and committing grotesque crimes against women, men, children and the elderly. Instead, King Abdullah, his wife Queen Rania, and Jordanian government officials are busy denouncing Israel for daring to go to war to defend its citizens against the terrorists in the Gaza Strip.

Jordan’s leaders are doing exactly what many other Arab regimes and heads of state have long been doing: radicalizing their people and inciting them to violence against Israel as a means of distracting them from problems at home.

The Arab leaders want their people to be busy hating Israel. Otherwise, the people might demand democracy, transparency and accountability from the corrupt Arab rulers. That is why many Arab leaders and their governments continue to unleash campaigns of blood libels and incitement to violence against Israel by accusing it of “genocide” and “war crimes.”

It is this precisely this anti-Israel rhetoric that drives Arabs and Muslims into the arms of Muslim terrorist groups such as Hamas and Islamic State (ISIS). It is also this type of rhetoric that prompts thousands of Jordanians to take to the streets to chant slogans in support of Hamas and repeat the same libels and falsehoods against Israel.

Jordanian officials have no right to complain that Islamist terrorist groups are seeking to undermine security and stability in the kingdom. The demonstrations outside the Israeli embassy in Amman and the slogans in support of Hamas are the direct result of the anti-Israel campaign of incitement to violence by Jordanian leaders.

The pro-Hamas and anti-Israel protesters who are demonstrating on the streets of Amman have undoubtedly been listening to the statements made by their leaders since the beginning of the war. The message the demonstrators are sending to Jordan’s leaders: “You have been telling us that Israel is so evil. How can you justify not severing Jordan’s diplomatic relations with Israel?”

Instead of holding Hamas responsible for initiating the war, Queen Rania has been serving as an apologist for the terrorist group, engaging in vitriolic verbal attacks on Israel. Their Jordanian majesties apparently seem to have forgotten that if Israel were not protecting them, their own Palestinian population would have overthrown them or assassinated them long ago, as they did to the king’s grandfather, King Abdullah I.

In a series of interviews over the past few weeks, Queen Rania, born in Kuwait to Palestinian parents, claimed that the humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip was “deliberately” caused by Israel. She has also apparently forgotten is that it is Hamas that is using its own citizens as human shields and stealing and hoarding the humanitarian aid in the hope that the blame will be assigned to Israel – as it all too often unfortunately is. She even went as far as equating Hamas’s October 7 atrocities to Israel’s counterterrorism measures:

“I would say that as devastating and as traumatic as October 7 was, it doesn’t give Israel license to commit atrocity after atrocity. Israel experienced one October 7. Since then, the Palestinians have experienced 156 October 7s.”

King Abdullah, has also been engaging in anti-Israel rhetoric since October 7. He and his foreign minister, Ayman Safadi, have accused Israel of “war crimes” and the “starvation” of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, when it has actually been Hamas doing those things.

Their majesties have further been fanning the flames by accusing Jews who peacefully visit the Temple Mount in Jerusalem of “storming” the al-Aqsa Mosque. It is important to note that Jewish visitors do not set foot inside the mosque during their approved, routine visits to the outdoor Temple Mount compound. This, however, has not stopped Jordan’s leaders from continuing to level false charges against Israel, including the claim that Jews are violently invading the mosque.

It is no wonder, then, that thousands of people in Jordan take to the streets to chant slogans in support of Hamas and to try to storm the Israeli embassy in Amman. What are Jordanians supposed to do when they hear their leaders demonize Israel and make false accusations against it? Sit at home and do nothing? Of course not. That is why they have been taking to the streets day after day, to praise Hamas and call for rescinding the peace treaty between Israel and Jordan.

Jordanian sources who spoke to the London-based pan-Arab newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat accused the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas leaders of working together “to involve the Jordanian street in the battle of Gaza and push the Jordanian street towards escalation against the [Jordanian] government.”

Referring to clashes between demonstrators and the security forces, the newspaper quoted unnamed “observers” as warning:

“The escalation of chaos and violence that Jordan is witnessing these days constitutes a prelude to a conspiracy led by the Muslim Brotherhood with clear Iranian goals to recreate chaos in the region.

“The Muslim Brotherhood and Iran are exploiting the issue of the war in the Gaza Strip to mobilize the street against the king, the army, and the government.”

Saudi political analyst Munif Al-Harbi remarked:

“It is no longer a secret that there are two parties that have interests in creating tension in the region and moving to a new front: the Muslim Brotherhood and Iran. They share the same agenda: destabilizing the Arab states. Since the beginning of the Gaza war, we have seen that the Hamas leadership is trying to mobilize the Jordanian street and is trying to drag the Jordanians into the war by any means.”

The Jordanian monarch needs to be reminded how his late father, King Hussein, cracked down on the Palestinian terrorist organizations in the early 1970s. Then, King Hussein’s security forces killed thousands of Palestinians after they tried to create a state-within-a-state inside the kingdom, in an armed conflict between the Jordanian army and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) that is known as Black September. If King Abdullah II does not stop appeasing Palestinian terrorists, it is only a matter of time before they erupt against him and try to end his reign. Even Israel will not be able to save him.

It is time for the Arab leaders to realize that by endlessly disgorging anti-Israel rhetoric, they are shooting themselves in both feet. The pro-Hamas demonstrators on the streets of Jordan not only want to eliminate Israel and kill Jews, they also want to see the king and his family removed from power. The demonstrators consider the king and queen traitors for maintaining a peace treaty with Israel. If Jordan’s King Abdullah and his wife want to avoid chaos in their kingdom, and a rather unpleasant outcome for themselves, they would do well to stop playing into the hands of the radical Islamists by inciting the Jordanian people to violence against Israel.

However, behind the incitement to violence that is empowering the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas — and destabilizing the area — lies the silky hand of Qatar.

Bassam Tawil is a Muslim Arab based in the Middle East. The work of Bassam Tawil is made possible through the generous donation of a donor who wished to remain anonymous. Gatestone is most grateful.