85908 - Transcription: The crisis in Gaza and the weird game of Jordan

N. Lygeros
Translated from the Greek by Athina Kehagias

It’s interesting to examine the game played especially by Jordan. At the moment we can see her looking at the issue almost in a neutral manner but in fact there is nothing neutral about it, for a very simple reason, she has to play in two completely different contexts. The first is the one related to the second Silk Road, where Jordan plays with the UAE, together with Israel, and initially with India, in order to then join up with the European Union. Therefore she knows what’s to her benefit. The second context is that because the West Bank was under her occupation from 1950 until she accepted in 1988 that this side of the Jordan river was not her own, Jordan avoids saying that she was in this context which handled the West Bank. So it’s interesting that now she is defending the Palestinians when before she thought they were all automatically Jordanians. When this behavior changed and then of course came the Oslo I and Oslo II Agreements, it’s then that we saw that Jordan began to be more neutral so to speak. At this point of time we’re noticing that she’s playing a game similar to Egypt, which is: I’m pro-Gaza, but I don’t want any Gazawis in my area. In actual fact this is interesting as well, that Jordan has had no problem occupying the West Bank, but has never dealt with Gaza, because she considers it a particular, completely different case. But because there are common borders with the West Bank in relation to the Jordan River, she wanted to play this game, where her alliance with Egypt in 1967 cost her half of Jerusalem. What I want to say is, if we examine the matter in this manner, we understand that Jordan’s position is difficult and that’s why we’re observing this game, but actually we know exactly what her position is and consequently at a high strategic level, we are definitely going to deal with the issue of Jordan in a deeper and different manner, because at the end of the case, at the end of the crisis, we know exactly where she will go, because quite simply it’s a one way street, when there is such an energean trade issue, and strong relations , at a high strategic level.