Everybody is talking about the nuclear power project King Abdullah II talked about to Israeli newspaper Haaretz. Apparently, Israeli sources are the most trusted when it comes to Jordan! For some reason that is beyond my comprehension of course. I for one do not trust Israeli sources on anything, but my fellow Jordanians and Palestinians seem to believe everything reported in Haaretz if and only if it was about Jordan.
Here’s what I want to say, first they quoted him without quoting the questions he was answering, but even if we didn’t know the questions, they’re normally related to Israel and where does it fit in the nuclear plan being developed. Second, if and only if one was trying to be objective and read the interview with no prejudgements and previously formulated negative opinions and attitudes toward the King, one can see that what he said if not taken literally and out of context that is, actually makes sense and is logical enough to consider and think about as valid arguments:
And this is the opportunity to reach out to the Palestinians and the Israelis and say, look, this is the golden chance and to an extent, maybe the last possibility. We had a conflict this summer.
The frequency of conflict in this region is extremely alarming, and the perception, I believe, among Arabs, and partly among Israelis, is that in the summer Israel lost this round… And that creates a very difficult and a very dangerous precedence for radical thinking in the area. The stakes are getting higher and higher.
Last summer we’ve witnessed a war on Lebanon, and it’s ridiculous to think that the King is saying he’s sad that Israel has lost, seriously if anyone thought that was what he meant he/she needs to start using the other half of their minds. What I understand is that with Iran’s nuclear power in the region and Israel’s reckless behavior (ie war on Lebanon only because Hizbollah abducted a soldier, their occpuation of Palestine and refusing to have peace talk with the Palestinians) the situation does not look good at all. The region certainly needs a new power that is equal to Iran’s. I highly doubt that anyone not just the King would imply something as outrageous as feeling sorry that Israel has lost and that the reason behind going nuclear is to prevent that from happening again! That is just absurd, do you think if that was true the King or anyone for that matter would talk about it to the press? And even less likely in an exclusive interview to Haaretz.
So this is an opportunity to reach out to each other and make sure that the crisis of this summer doesn’t happen again. If we don’t move the peace process forward, it’s only a matter of time until there is a conflict between Israel and somebody else in the region. And I think it’s coming sooner rather than later.
We all need to work together, because solving the Israeli-Palestinian problem allows us to tackle the other issues around us. All of us are looking at Iraq with concern, we don’t know what’s going to happen in Lebanon, although we hope that they’re moving in the right direction… Whether people like it or not, the linchpin is always the Israeli-Palestinian problem.
I can’t agree more that it has been always about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, and when it wasn’t really about it, it was made into that! If Iran decides overnight to support Hamas millitary and attack Israel, nobody is going to like it, we’re talking nuclear weapons and the engagement of other parties in the region in a war that is going to be far worse than the last, more Palestinians and Lebanese will be killed and God knows who else will get involved, that must be prevented if possible and the only solution as the King said over and over in the same interview is peace talks. I also believe that Iran is a threat to the Arab Gulf countries, all of them are Islamic countries but lets not be naive, there was a history of conflict between Iran and the Arab Gulf and taking safety for granted is plain foolish. Developing an equal power does seem like the right thing, always better to be careful than sorry.
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