Did Jordan generate a crisis, or was it Israel’s fault?
Mar 12, 2021
March 11 was supposed to mark a major diplomatic victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu less than two weeks before crucial March 23 elections. The morning hours were set aside for a two-hour visit to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) from which he was to return with a historic photo alongside Emirati Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Back in Israel, a meeting awaited him in the afternoon with Prime Ministers Viktor Orban of Hungary and Andrej Babis of the Czech Republic, exactly a week after he hosted a brief visit by the prime ministers of Denmark and Austria. Netanyahu’s high stakes diplomacy was meant to reflect his election slogan — politicians are a dime a dozen, but there is only one Netanyahu. He is in a class of his own.
His plans, however, went awry. Worse yet, the hitch shone a harsh spotlight on the ongoing deep tensions between Israel and Jordan, embarrassing Netanyahu at particularly bad timing. On the morning of March 11, a sleek executive jet sent by the UAE was parked at Ben Gurion Airport waiting to pick up Netanyahu and his entourage and fly them to Abu Dhabi — but Jordan refused to approve the flight path over its territory. The Saudis rejected requests to allow the plane to overfly their territory, and Netanyahu eventually decided to postpone his trip, calling the crown prince to apologize.
The trigger for this embarrassing incident occurred the day before over a planned visit by Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein to attend a special prayer at Haram al-Sharif in Jerusalem, Islam’s third-holiest site also venerated by the Jews at the site of their ancient Temple. Jordan notified Israel of the visit just two days earlier, citing the spontaneous nature of the prince’s decision. Either way, when the delegation of dozens of Jordanians — many of them bodyguards — arrived by bus from Jordan, deep disagreement arose between his security detail and Israel’s Shin Bet agency tasked with protecting the event.
The Jordanians waited around, hoping for a quick resolution of the problem. When that did not happen, they turned around and drove back to Amman, where the Royal Palace issued a furious statement. This, in turn, set the stage for a series of Jordanian officials to explain the extent to which bilateral relations had deteriorated in recent years and the finality of the boycott the palace has imposed on any contact with Netanyahu. “Neither the king nor any other senior figure have returned Netanyahu’s phone calls for ages,” a source associated with the palace in Amman told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.
While relations between King Abdullah and Netanyahu are chilly at best, Jordanian relations with Netanyahu’s political rivals — Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Foreign Minister Gabi Ashkenazi — apparently remain cordial. “Gantz is the only one who speaks with the king from time to time,” the source in Amman conceded. What is more, the defense agencies on both sides maintain close coordination and cooperation, irrespective of the diplomatic and political tensions.