Jordan: Early signs of chickens coming home to roost?

While Jordan's King Abdullah was meeting President Obama in California on February 14, requesting for increased financial assistance, a rare anti-Israel, anti U.S. demo was seen in Jordan opposing the U.S. brokered peace deal between Netanyahu and Mahmoud Abbas.  The protest went as far as demanding the King to revoke the peace agreement of 1994 with the Zionist state.  Though majority of Jordanians abhor the Israel/U.S. hegemony in the region, they are seldom dauntless enough to speak up.  Protesting against Israel or U.S. amounts to protesting against the Jordanian monarch.  The very purpose of this country and its monarchy created in the 1920s by the British was to safeguard British & American interest in the region; subsequently, protecting Israeli interest is the 'bread & butter' of King Abdullah II.   Jordan is stiflingly authoritarian where a single word of criticism against any member of the 'royal family' could send one to prison indefinitely.

Not to forget, many of these protesters are linked to Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood.  Zaki Irshad, deputy head of MB in Jordan stated "There is a general consensus among Jordanians that a dangerous project is being orchestrated by the US through its foreign secretary, John Kerry, to liquidate the Palestinian cause."

On February 7, a similar demonstration was held in the capital with chants of "Death to America."

Palestinians want to establish an independent homeland in West Bank, Eastern Jerusalem and the beleaguered Gaza Strip. For that Israel needs to withdraw completely, to stop constructing illegal Jewish settlements in the West Bank and dismantle the ones that exist.  At present more than half a million Israelis are living in the illegal settlements across West Bank.  Israel refuses to stop the construction of Jewish homes on occupied land and refuses to lift the siege of Gaza.

Al-Qaeda and its ally, MB, getting stronger than ever - courtesy United States of America and the European Union - can a bounce back in Jordan be considered hypothetical?

Jordan being one of the training grounds for mercenaries headed for Syria since the last three years, Abdullah was quick to state the other day that if he was Assad, he would have stepped down.  If the chickens do come home to roost, how long might it take for Abdullah to step down would be an interesting guess.  When Egypt was protesting against Mubarak in 2011, Rajab Erdogan in Turkey put the maximum number against himself to 300 claiming if ever as many as 300 Turks protested against him, he would step down.  The Gezi Park movement of 2013 saw at least a million protesting against him; he called them "thieves and terrorists."















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