With all of the news concerning Bibi Netanyahu’s cancelled trip to the UAE due to blocked air travel over Jordan, most observers are missing the deeper connection between the Abraham Accords and Jordan’s increasingly belligerent behavior.
From the beginning of Jordan’s creation, it was always seen by the West and indigenous Middle Eastern peoples as an artificial state. After all it was essentially the Eastern part of the Palestine Mandate that the British conveniently gave to the Hashemite warlords that had helped them in World War One, but who were unceremoniously kicked out of what is today Saudi Arabia, but their rivals – the Saudi Royal Family.
Both the Jordanian and Saudi Royal families were created by the British – an amalgamation of desert warlords and an importation of British royal imagery.
Jordan, being a made up state has always needed Western infusion of capital since it has nothing of its own. The West has seen Jordan as a necessary component of a free and secure Israel, since the Kingdom could be used as a block to the dangers coming from Iraq and now Iran.
The Abraham Accords has scrambled and in a sense reduced Jordan’s necessity as a security buffer. With this weakened position now comes the revelation that the King of Jordan has been cozying up over the years to the Muslim Brotherhood. Furthermore, Jordan’s reduced role in the region means that like the PA, the Gulf States may decide to throw the King and the Hashemites under the bus, once and for all.
Jordan’s blocking of the Prime Minister’s trip to Israel’s new and far ore friendly allies is about trying to stay in the game.
However, all it has done is ensure that when the time is right, Jordan may be come the Palestine it is supposed to be.