Jordan’s Palestinian Question
Today on Tablet
January 11, 2011
Asher Susser explores how the Palestinian issue has divided Israel from one of the only Arab countries with which it is, technically, at peace: Neighboring Jordan.
As Jordan’s position on Palestinian refugees is becoming one of the more strident in the Arab world, the two countries now hold diametrically opposing views on an issue that both sides regard as truly existential, touching the raw nerves of their collective beings and promising future discord: Jordan wants large-scale repatriation; while Israel rejects the so-called right of return.
A recent Jordanian sense of urgency on the Palestinian question has even pushed the Hashemite Kingdom away from the American orbit and more in the direction of the Iranian one, Susser reports.
Marc Tracy is a staff writer at The New Republic, and was previously a staff writer at Tablet. He tweets @marcatracy.
