The operation carried out by retired Jordanian soldier Maher Al-Jazi at the Karameh crossing was met with great celebration and interaction inside and outside Jordan, with a near consensus on the legitimacy and usefulness of this type of operation, in light of the ongoing Israeli aggression on Gaza.
This celebration creates a crisis for the official position in Jordan, which is keen – due to its policy of maintaining peace with Israel – to ensure that popular reactions do not exceed the limits of sympathy for the human suffering in Gaza, without prejudice to the security, political and economic obligations arising from the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty, and the requirements of the alliance with the United States.
This explains the state of calm that has been witnessed on the Jordanian-Israeli border for years after the signing of the Wadi Araba Agreement in 1994, and the only thing that disturbed it was the operation of the soldier Ahmed Al-Daqamseh in 1997.
Jordanian government concerns
The most important fear among the Jordanian authorities is that this operation will constitute a model that motivates the expansion of these attempts, especially since this operation brought together elements that weaken the effectiveness of the narratives opposing the resistance in Jordan, the first of which is that the perpetrator belongs to a large Jordanian clan, and he served in the army for 20 years.
The perpetrator is also not known to be affiliated with any political party, which makes questioning his national affiliation extremely difficult, within the prevailing Jordanian cultural context. Given his ability to kill 3 Israeli security personnel, it is difficult to question the effectiveness of any similar individual actions.
Popular embrace
On the morning of the operation, the widespread popular interaction with it overshadowed all forms of interest in the parliamentary elections. The ten most popular hashtags on the “X” platform, for example, were almost exclusively about the operation. The spread of a rumor about the identity of the perpetrator was enough to make the name of its owner the most popular for hours, until his true identity became clear. The situation was no different on Facebook.
In terms of other popular stances, there were signs of joy represented by the distribution of sweets in various areas of the Kingdom, and the launching of fireworks in a march of support witnessed in the center of the capital, Amman, on the evening of the operation, while large numbers of Jordanians traveled hundreds of kilometers to participate in the house of mourning set up by the martyr’s family in the town of Al-Hussainiya in southern Jordan.
In the same context, the Huwaitat clan – to which the martyr is related – issued a statement considering their son’s action “a natural reaction of a person who is jealous of his religion, his homeland and his Arab identity towards the ongoing crimes committed by the usurping occupier against the sons of the Palestinian people, especially what is happening in Gaza in terms of killing, displacement and genocide,” stressing that the blood of their martyred son “is not more precious than the blood of the sons of our Palestinian people,” and that “he will not be the last of the martyrs.”
The power of a successful model
Despite the overwhelming popular anger in Jordan against Israeli crimes, which was represented in the widespread demonstrations, the general strike, the economic boycott of companies supporting the occupying state, and the popular calls to cancel the Wadi Araba Treaty, the popular feeling of inability to exert pressure to stop the aggression on Gaza was prevalent.
Military expert, retired Colonel Dr. Muhammad Al-Muqabala, told Tel Aviv Tribune Net that this attack “reflects the true pulse of the Jordanian people, and that the street is seething over the massacres against the Palestinians in the occupied territories.”
While the model of individual operations against the occupation did not emerge for reasons including the intensive military deployment along the border, which was shown in video clips and media reports during the ongoing war, and the policy of concealing any infiltration operations, which emerged in the official discourse of both the Jordanian and Israeli sides, with the aim of avoiding raising public interest in such actions.
News about the Jordanian army deploying armored forces on its borders with Palestine pic.twitter.com/51IdvXH4aQ
— Arab-Military (@ashrafnsier) November 18, 2023
Every now and then, news leaks through the Israeli media about operations that were not completed. Israeli Channel 12 reported after the crossing operation that “Jordanian intelligence arrested about two months ago 4 Jordanians from the city of Salt who had manufactured explosives and prepared a truck to detonate it at the Karameh crossing.”
In the same context, a media discourse is spreading that seeks to link any arms smuggling operations to the West Bank via Jordan with the actions of the pro-Iran factions in Syria and Iraq, and with drug smuggling operations, and accuses those who smuggle weapons of intending to use them against Jordan and not against the occupation, in parallel with inciting strife and popular division.
This was evident in what Reuters reported on May 15, 2015, quoting two Jordanian security sources, saying, “Jordan has thwarted a plot suspected to be orchestrated by Tehran to smuggle weapons into the kingdom in order to help opponents of the royal rule carry out acts of sabotage.”
The two sources said the weapons were sent by Iranian-backed factions in Syria to a Muslim Brotherhood cell in Jordan with links to the military wing of Hamas. The weapons were seized when members of the cell, Jordanians of Palestinian origin, were arrested in late March.
On the other hand, what increases the pressure on Israel is the martyr Maher Al-Jazzy’s ability to penetrate the security vigilance on both sides of the border and impose a heavy price on the occupation soldiers. This is likely to increase international concern about the repercussions of Israel’s continued crimes on its security and the stability of peace, which is an essential requirement for its survival in the region in the long term.
Official position crisis
Therefore, the official position of the Jordanian government is facing a crisis in light of the inability of diplomatic means to stop the massacres of the occupation, which causes the erosion of the legitimacy of maintaining security and economic cooperation with the occupation and the rise of the political cost of the presence of American forces – supporting Israel – on Jordanian territory.
The increase in the opposition’s share in the next parliament may constitute a negative indicator regarding popular satisfaction with government policies, especially with regard to the position on the war on Gaza.
What also casts a shadow over the matter is that Israeli behavior in previous incidents that witnessed the killing of Jordanian citizens was provocative to Jordan; as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu celebrated a security guard for the Israeli embassy in Amman after he killed Jordanian citizens “Mohammed Al-Jawawdeh” and “Bashar Hamarneh” in 2017.
It took nearly 4 years for the Israeli government to express its “regret and remorse” for the killing of Judge Zuaiter in 2014, and for the assassination of Jordanian citizens, while the joint investigation committee into the killing of Zuaiter has not yet announced the results of the investigation, and the name of the soldier who killed him remains unknown.
In light of these facts, the official handling of the Al-Jazzy operation was cautious, as the Jordanian Ministry of Interior was content to issue a brief statement confirming the identity of the perpetrator announced by the Israeli media, and that the initial results of the investigation indicate that the incident was an individual act.
The official spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Sufian Qudah, stressed “Jordan’s firm position in rejecting and condemning violence and targeting civilians for any reason, and calling for addressing all causes and escalatory steps that generate it.”
While this position disavows the operation, it avoids explicitly attacking the perpetrator and points to the occupation’s responsibility for inciting tension and providing an environment that encourages it.
In parallel, Jordanian media outlets were keen to hold Netanyahu’s government responsible for the escalation and ignore the problem’s connection to the origin of the occupation and its ongoing aggressive behavior since its inception, in order not to affect the official strategy based on preserving the Jordanian-Israeli peace treaty and avoiding harming the relationship with the United States and the rest of the Western countries that see the occupation state as a regional extension of them.
However, according to analysts, the success of Operation Jazzy in breaking the wall of silence may most likely encourage many to draw inspiration from his model and try to emerge from their state of helplessness in the face of the unprecedented massacres witnessed in Gaza and to confront the efforts to liquidate the Palestinian cause that have been ongoing for many years.
