What makes Israel think that it can survive in the long run given that it will be surrounded by enemies on all sides and that they are a tiny country ?
Following the deaths of three Israeli security guards near the Allenby Bridge border crossing between Jordan and the occupied West Bank, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared that Israel is "surrounded by a murderous ideology led by Iran.".
In December, his administration stated that Israel was engaged in a war on seven fronts, all orchestrated by Iran.
If this acknowledges that Netanyahu's failure to end the genocidal war in Gaza is jeopardizing the security of all of Israel's borders, then it is belated. Netanyahu correctly stated that there exists animosity towards Israel on the eastern bank of the Jordan Valley.
The widespread celebrations that ensued after the killings demonstrated that Jordanians do not require Iran's direct incitement.
The Israeli military's genocidal campaign in Gaza and the settlers' terrorism against Palestinians in the West Bank have independently fostered animosity throughout the region. Jordan, which was silent for half a century over the Palestinian issue, is no longer quiet.
Gaza has radicalized the Arab world in a way that has not been seen since the Arab Spring over a decade ago.
Most importantly, Maher al-Jazi, the truck driver responsible for the attack, hails from the southern Jordanian village of Udrah in the Maan governorate. Haroun al-Jazi, a former head of the same tribe, commanded Eastern Jordanian volunteers in the 1948 battle of Jerusalem.
Maher is a descendent of Mashour al-Jazi, the commander of the Jordanian army during the 1968 battle between Israeli troops and the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) alongside the Jordanian armed forces in the border town of Karameh.
Al-Jazi's town and clan pose a threat to the wilfully ignorant western embassies in the region, who are hoping for a swift extinguishment of the fire.
The Israeli army and nearly one million armed settlers are rapidly militarizing the western side of the 335 km-long border, while Jordanian tribes and the Jordanian army, which heavily recruits from these tribes, secure the eastern side.
As a result, tribal leaders' perspectives on the shooting are critical for the future stability of this border.
I will always remember how easily King Abdullah disregarded the tribes while piloting a Black Hawk chopper, for which he has a personal squadron.
The scenario resembled a Hollywood production, yet it was effective. His passenger, American journalist Jeffrey Goldberg, was appropriately pleased and documented it for The Atlantic.
"I'm sitting with the old dinosaurs today," Abdullah told Goldberg before the king's scheduled lunch with tribal chiefs in Karak.
This occurred a few months prior to the ending of the Arab Spring in 2013.
Today, the king would not courageously refer to tribe chiefs as "old dinosaurs" unless he himself was also heading for extinction.
In these challenging times, the Hashemite monarchy increasingly relies on the tribes as the cornerstone of its legitimacy, which is undermined by a lengthy economic downturn.
The statements of tribal leaders are seen as indicators of the national sentiment.
On Monday, their statements contained no indication of condolence or apology.
The Al-Huwaitat clan issued a statement from the family, asserting that the Israeli prime minister bears full responsibility for the events at the border crossing, and added:
"The blood of our martyred son is not more precious than the blood of our Palestinian people and he will not be the last martyr."
Sheikh Trad al-Fayez, the leader of the Bani Sakhr tribe, endorsed this "heroic operation," which "expresses our people and our nation". He continued:
"The peoples of the nation must take a decisive, honourable and firm stance in confronting this aggression."
No evidence of Iran or any foreign entity is to be found in any of this. The anger is natural.
Ahmad Obeidat, a former prime minister and intelligence chief, had previously made a similar statement prior to the shootings occurring. Obeidat has never witnessed his nation unified in support of Palestinian resistance. "This battle is everyone’s battle. Because fate is one. And the enemy that targets Palestine clearly will target Jordan," he stated.
Odeidat perceived this as an inevitable outcome of Israel's determination that the time to manage the conflict was over: "Either you [Israelis] kill the Palestinian people or you displace them. You kill them or displace them. This is happening in front of us," he stated.
He asserted:
"Any Arab or Muslim who surrendered a grain of the soil of historic Palestine - not just the 22 percent left to negotiate on 4 June 1967 - [is] a traitor to their country, their nation and their religion."
The preliminary results of parliamentary elections in Jordan reflect the public sentiment, as the electoral system is structured to limit any single political entity's capacity to secure seats despite obtaining a majority of votes.
Nonetheless, the Islamic Action Party of the Muslim Brotherhood secured 18 out of 40 seats based on preliminary results. They are expected to acquire 14 additional seats from locals, resulting in around 32 seats out of 130, so establishing them as the largest singular party.
This level of engagement, 11 years after the Arab Spring's suppression, cannot be solely attributed to Israel's establishment of a secondary front in its Gaza operations within the West Bank.
It is not the result of Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz's warnings about the need for "temporary evacuations" in "some cases of intense combat." In June, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich disclosed that his government was changing the West Bank's governance, thereby achieving annexation in everything but name.
Nor indeed of the digital map made by Netanyahu, in which Jordan was assigned the same color as Gaza, while the West Bank was entirely erased.
One document that exemplifies how Israel's actions and rhetoric constitute a fundamental security threat to Jordan and its Arab neighbors is a recent BBC investigation into the unlawful appropriation of extensive land by settlers through farming outposts, which violate both Israeli and international law.
In February, Moshe Sharvit, a settler penalized by the UK and the US for perpetrating violence and intimidation against Palestinians, had an open day at his outpost, which was recorded on film.
Sharvit articulated his proficiency in stealing land: "The biggest regret when we [settlers] built settlements was that we got stuck within the fences and couldn’t expand," he expressed to the audience. "The farm is very important, but the most important thing for us is the surrounding area."
Sharvit claimed ownership of 7,000 dunams (7 square kilometers) of land. The settlers are laughing while they intimidate, harass, and shoot Palestinian farmers off their land. They are stormtroopers, exploiting vulnerable victims. They swagger. They smile.
Currently, there are 196 outposts that are deemed illegal according to Israeli law. The quantity of these posts has doubled in the past five years, prior to the Hamas attack on 7 October.
I challenge any audience to watch this documentary and not experience a surge of anger.
Sharvit is not operating on his own. The Israeli human rights organization Peace Now obtained documents revealing that two organizations with formal connections to the Israeli government are financing these land thefts.
Amana is one entity that provided a $270,000 loan to a settler to build greenhouses at an outpost. According to the BBC investigation, Ze'ev Hever, the CEO of Amana, made the following statement in a leaked 2021 executive meeting:
"In the last three years… one operation we have expanded is the herding farm [outposts]. Today, the area [they control] is almost twice the size of built settlements."
Canada imposes sanctions on Amana for "violent and destabilising actions against Palestinian civilians and their property in the West Bank.".
Via its settlement division, which oversees land Israel has occupied since 1967, the World Zionist Organization (WZO) supports the herd farming outposts.
This division characterizes itself as an "arm of the Israeli state." It also has foreign affiliates and partners. At least one of them is a registered charity in the United Kingdom.
The BBC offered an opportunity for a response from Amana and the WZO; however, neither provided a reply.
The United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom impose sanctions on violent settlers, then permit their financiers and associates to work freely in Britain and America.
How is this possible? Surely this deserves greater scrutiny.
It is difficult to differentiate between the settlers and the military, who one day intimidate Palestinian farmers and the following day are recorded shooting at them.
It is harder to delineate the boundaries between the settlements and outposts and what was formerly fondly, albeit inaccurately, termed "Israel proper.".
This is significant, or ought to be significant, to the US, UK, the EU, or any European nation that professes to advocate for the establishment of a Palestinian state. It is in two-thirds of the West Bank that the Palestinian quest for self-determination is being eradicated, as Smotrich is acutely aware.
Each appropriation of every dunum of land constitutes an act of war in this battle, the only battle that counts. This war is being waged by the entirety of the Israeli state and the global Zionist community.
No justification exists for a state's claim to "defend itself" when it is persistently and secretly on the offensive.
It is unsurprising that Israel cultivates animosity among its neighbors. This animosity is well-deserved. It is, if anything, understated.
It is not Israel alone that might arrive at the conclusion that "it is us or them." Its neighbors can do the same.