This question crosses the minds of Jordanians anytime a crisis hits the Middle East (Well thank God nothing ever went wrong there). It's a little bit surprising to be in the region bordered mostly by Syria/Iraq/Israel-Palestine and not be directly involved or threatened by any of the wars and military conflicts in the region.
So what keep Jordan safe?
Let's get back to see how Jordan was founded. In 1946 we got our independence from Great Britain, but it was a little bit too late. The "Big Syria" has already been divided betwen the UK and France. Palestine was divided then occupied by the Jews who established Israel. Great numbers of Palestenians fled to the East Bank, and with the six-day war more refugess moved to Jordan. Jordan kept having sudden bursts in its population following the 1991 gulf war. Currently half of Jordan'a population are originally Palestenian, Jordanian citizens and internationally recognized as refugees.
On the other hand, Jordan maintained its anti-war stand-up over the past few decades, ironically it was the country most affected by any war in the region after the countries directly involved in them, but never changed its position on conflicts around it. Jordan isn't always on the side of the US, however since the 1991 war there was no major antagonism between the super power and its presumed ally. When Jordan did not stand by the US side in the first gulf war, its economy suffered harshly.
One of the reasons Jordan was established is to serve as a host country for Palestenian refugees.
Currently it's playing a role much larger than that as a buffer zone whose safety is in the interest of other countries in the region. It's a good friend to the US at a time the US does not have many friends. Once it fails to fulfil these roles, perhaps any of them, its safety will be in jeopardy.
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jordan is safe as long as it minds its own business. we have/had no strategic significance, no oil, no control of critical passageways to anywhere. Only time we got burned is when we started doing the dirty work for the US "war on terror" by torturing iraqis and doing dirty ops in iraq. before that when we tried to liquidate the PLO, which we almost did but due to Arab and international intervention the palestinian movement was saved at the 11th hour. bottom line, we stay out of people's business, we keep our act clean, and we don't do anyone's dirty work and we will manage to cruise along safely. so the challange for jordanian authorities is to resist the dangerous thinking that we can/should play a greater role than we are really fit to. i say we stay neutral, in statements and in actions and keep a low profile.
Very true...
Also Kuwait, specifically the city, which has been built in a British style (desinged for snow ?? in Kuwait?? )
This city was also meant to serve the Palestinian refugees, and It did, untill the Saddam occupation, 1990.
anonymous, thank you for commenting. Can you please tell me why did the US bother itself and interfere in the Middle East busniness since the 1940s? There are many regions in the world with plenty of conflicts and miseries more than what the Middle East witnessed, why is the US putting the inetrest in the Middle East as a chief priority? Why don't they focus on other areas??
"[kuwait] was also meant to serve the Palestinian refugees, and It did, untill the Saddam occupation"
Kuwait was a safe heaven for the Palestinains until the US decided that a Palestinian majority in Kuwait was a threat to oil supplies and a source of financial strength for the PLO. The saddam invasion only provided US and Kuwaiti government with a pretext to expell the Palestinains under the hyped charge of supporting Saddam. Fact is many palestinains fought in the resistance and against Saddam. But everytime an Arab regime needs to punish one group or another they come up with a Grand Excuse. They learned it from Israel.
Hareega: three letters: O I L followed by six: I S R A E L
Believe me ya Hareega, Jordan turn will come soon when it has nothing to do for Israel and USA! I hope all the Arab countries to stand united and f*ck everything! first we need to burn all the oil in the middle east because it's the curse! and then we need to bomb everything not Arabic in the Arab countries! this way we will be strong
The last anonymous comment is not practical at all! why burn the oil when the Arab countries can use it as an effective weapon? dump everything that is not Arabic is not realistic either, a huge number of the Arabs have duel nationalities, and they can use this to the advantage of their home land on many ways. anyway, too much talk about everything, it has been going on forever and to tell you the truth, i do not see an end to it anytime soon. Now, what do we do regarding the attacks on the Palestinians and the Lebanese people and make the world understand that their fight is justified? hard question to answer.
Anonymous:
I would like to add more at what you said.
After the analysis of the Iraqi invasion to Kuwait, everybody agreed that the most loser side was the Palestinian. Many of the Palestinians who had decent life in Kuwait prior to Iraqi occupation were forced to leave Kuwait, and hence became guests (or prefferably refugees to other Arab countries). Actually few of them were lucky and had the ability to have a new decent life again, while the majority lost everything. So Saddam's occupation in a way or another was just another way to scatter Palestinians again.
Yes, the Palestinian Authority upon the First intifad got the support from the Rich Kuwaiti government, we also had real patriots in PLO then (like Abu Jahed, for example).
So here's the Plan, create a cozy home for the Palestinians so they don't claim their rights, but never allow them to have any political activity.
And sorry for my first comment!!
I meant to say : The City of Ahmadi..!!
I forgot to mention the name of the city! :)
The city of Ahmadi still have the unique British style. but without Palestinians now!
Hi!
I liked reading through your blog.Thanks for sharing.its my first time here,so i will keep quite,Wish you well
http://www.sabrihakim.com/archive/2006/7/74015.html
see how jordanian predators entertain themselvs with the misery of poor children.
I hope the anonymous use a fake name intead of anonymous so it can make it easier for me to reply,
for the anonymous who suggested burning everything non-Arab in the Arab world, I suggest we start with your PC which is non-Arab. I agree that oil was a curse however it was an excellent test to know how Arabs react to the sudden fortune that they got. We have to learn how to make use of our fortunes and how to interact with the West. Just detroying and burning everything doesn't help.
Summer- there doesn't seem to be an end soon but we have to work on long-term solutions. I believe that the change should start in Arab countries.
Abed.Hamdan.... Yaser Arafat shares some responsibility of the misery that Palestenians went through after the '90 war. The PLO men in the 1990s also share responsibility for the corruption in the Palestenian territories afterwards.
Zingtrial... welcome here. You're always welcome to comment !
of course he does..
Jordan will always remain stable, whether it is pro American or not as long as it doesn't flirt with the Arab dream to free Palestine.
Jordan today is no more than a fence to Israel's longest border. The US and Israel will go to great lengths to keep it stable. Thus the largest US embassy and CIA office in the world is in Amman.
So I think that we have nothing to worry about. Unless Jordanians become nostalgic to the days of Nasser and UM Kalthoum since neither religion nor any form of moral obligation have worked to direct their attention to the west, or east and north on top of that.
Nice post and replies..
just hate reading without responding
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