Israel to Jordan: We don't plan to topple Hamas in Gaza soon
Khaled Abu Toameh , THE JERUSALEM POST Nov. 20, 2008
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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Defense Minister Ehud Barak assured Jordan's
King Abdullah this week that Israel does not intend to launch a major
offensive to bring down the Hamas regime in Gaza in the near future,
Jordanian sources told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday. The two Israeli
leaders did not rule out a range of less dramatic military operations
against Hamas and other terror operatives in the Strip.

Olmert and Barak, who met with Abdullah in Amman on Tuesday, told the king
that Israel greatly values its peace partnership with Jordan and would bear
the interests of the Hashemite leadership in mind as it grapples with the
dilemmas posed by Hamas's rule in Gaza.

Abdullah on Thursday briefed Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
in Aqaba on the results of the secretive Tuesday meeting.

The Prime Minister's Office on Thursday refused to confirm that the meeting
had even taken place. But Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni did respond to news
of the talks, at which Abdullah cautioned his Israeli guests that a
large-scale military operation in Gaza would have serious repercussions for
his country and the region.

While Israel respected the importance of its relations with its Arab peace
partners, and heeded their concerns, Livni said, it would continue to act
according to its own interests.

"Israel does indeed have strategic ties with its neighbors, Egypt and
Jordan, and listens to their needs, but the bottom line remains that the
country acts according to the interests of the Israeli citizen," she said,
during a visit to the Tefen Industrial Park.

Abdullah is also understood to have relayed to Olmert and Barak a message
from Hamas in which the movement emphasized its keenness on maintaining the
truce with Israel.

Top Jordanian security officials have been holding a "frank dialogue" with
Hamas representatives in the past few weeks in a bid to ease tensions
between the two parties.

Tuesday's meeting was arranged after the Jordanians said they received
information according to which Israel was planning a major operation in the
Gaza Strip - not only to stop the rocket attacks, but also to topple the
Hamas regime, the sources said.

According to the information, a large-scale action was envisaged that might
claim the lives of many Israelis and Palestinians - and stir unrest on the
Arab and Muslim street.

The Israeli military drive, the Jordanians were told, was also aimed at
restoring the regime of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to the
Gaza Strip after eliminating the Hamas leadership and overthrowing their
government.

The Jordanians' biggest fear was that Olmert and Barak were each planning to
embark on such an "adventure" for reasons related to the upcoming general
elections in Israel, the sources said.

The Jordanian monarchy has good reason to fear the consequences of such an
operation, the sources noted. In the past, IDF operations in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip, which sometimes resulted in the killing of dozens of
Palestinians, triggered a wave of protests throughout the kingdom and the
rest of the Arab world.

In Jordan, where more than two-thirds of the population is Palestinians, the
protests were always tolerated by the authorities, largely because they did
not pose a threat to the regime.

But Abdullah and his government fear that any Israeli attempt to overthrow
the Hamas regime would spark an unprecedented wave of violence in the
kingdom.

Jordanian sources pointed out on Thursday that US-led efforts to get rid of
the Hamas government over the past two years had backfired, earning the
movement even greater support and sympathy among the Palestinians.

"There's a feeling that Hamas continues to be popular among a majority of
Palestinians," said a retired Jordanian government official.

"Hamas owes its strength and popularity to the Americans - who have been
waging a public campaign, with the help of the Palestinian Authority, to
remove the Islamist government from power. In the end it was Hamas that
managed to kick the Palestinian Authority out of the Gaza Strip."

Relations between Hamas and Jordan were strained after the late King Hussein
deported Hamas leaders and closed down their offices in Amman about 10 years
ago. The tensions reached their peak two years ago when the Jordanians
announced that they had thwarted an attempt by Hamas to smuggle weapons into
the kingdom for launching terror attacks on Israel.

The Jordanian monarch is hoping that the talks with Hamas will send a
message to the disgruntled Palestinian refugees living in the kingdom that
Jordan is not involved in the US "conspiracy" to bring down the
democratically-elected government of Hamas, the sources said.

The Jordanians are convinced that Hamas remains an influential player in the
West Bank despite the massive crackdown on its supporters by Abbas's
security forces over the past few weeks. "Abbas is still too weak and he
hardly has any credibility among his people," the former government official
said. "I'm afraid that if we hold a free election tomorrow in the West Bank,
Hamas would win."

Another reason why the Jordanians are worried about the ongoing efforts to
bring down Hamas is because of the movement's strong ties with the Muslim
Brotherhood organization in the kingdom. Together with Hamas supporters in
Jordan, the Muslim Brotherhood has been trying in recent weeks to organize a
series of protests against the continued blockade on the Gaza Strip.

Anti-Israel and anti-US protests in Arab capitals are often directed also
against the Arab heads of state under the pretext that they are pawns in the
hands of Washington. The Arab leaders are also accused by their constituents
of failing to use their good offices with the US to exert pressure on
Israel.

Unlike the majority of the Arab leaders, Abdullah is in a much more
vulnerable situation because of his country's peace treaty with Israel and
because of the Palestinian majority in the kingdom. The same applies to
Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, who is also worried about the repercussions
of an Israeli military offensive so close to his country.

In addition to Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood, the sources said, the
Jordanians are also worried about Al-Qaida's ongoing efforts to destabilize
the monarchy. Jordan is particularly concerned that a US pullout from Iraq
would embolden Al-Qaida and other radical Islamist groups - posing a major
threat to the kingdom's security.

The pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat reported that during Tuesday's meeting, the two
sides also discussed Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations. According to
the London-based paper, Olmert briefed Abdullah on the ongoing peace talks
and the results of his most recent meeting with Abbas.

According to diplomatic officials in London quoted by the paper, Abdullah
stressed the need for continued peace negotiations and progress towards a
two-state solution, which he said was the only option for achieving peace in
the region. He also reportedly emphasized that Jordan had a strategic
interest in the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Al-Hayat also reported that Abdullah asked Olmert to take immediate steps to
ease the suffering of the Palestinian people to create an atmosphere
conducive to progress in the peace talks. He stressed the need for Israel
not to increase tension, particularly in Gaza.

Olmert's spokesman, Mark Regev, said he was not commenting on media reports
regarding the visit to Amman.