A friend reposted a photo of Mahmoud Abbas and King Abdullah yukking it up after Abdullah apparently made the usual representation to Abbas that East Jerusalem would be the capital of an independent Palestinian state, eventually. Which of course had Jewish friends up in arms.
But really, this goes on all the time, and it happens because Abdullah has a serious problem, and it’s not his buddy-buddy, hail-fellow-well-met approach to Abbas, either. That’s more than likely an act for the peasantry. Think about it.
He has more Palestinians living in his country than any other Arab country. Jordan’s total population is about 9.5 million, and UNRWA says there are “more than” 2 million Palestinians living there, most but not all with full Jordanian citizenship. There are 10 recognized refugee camps in Jordan containing 370,000 Palestinians, again, according to UNRWA.
If you are the King of Jordan, and more than 20% of your population might just rise up against you if you treat their relatives in Gaza wrong — or, shoot, even if you just look at them funny — wouldn’t you temporize a lot, make supportive mouth noises, and hope the Israelis, whom you know are your only real friends, will keep the Gazans and the West Bankers busy for you while you keep an uneasy eye to the north and east watching the Iraqis and the Syrians?
That’s what Abdullah’s dad did. And I wouldn’t be surprised if Abdullah avails himself of a long hot shower after any meeting with Abbas, just to wash the stink off. The King knows the Israelis are never going to agree to give up sovereignty over Jerusalem, and that probably suits him just fine, since that means he doesn’t have to beat up on the Waqf when they get out of hand.
Make no mistake: This is no apologia for the King of Jordan for looking like an ass, but sometimes a King must do things in his public life that he abhors in private. My money says that Bibi knew all about this meeting and what Abdullah was going to say before it occurred.
I could be entirely wrong. But Jordan has never really been a place where Palestinians were welcome; the problem was that they didn’t have a whole lot of choice in the matter of letting them in, unlike the rest of the Middle Eastern Arab countries.