Jordan, Egypt worried over Gaza revolt
Amman fearful Israel may attempt to revive idea of a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation, while Egypt concerned Hamas takeover may embolden Muslim Brotherhood
Jordan and Egypt are closely following the developments in Gaza following Hamas’ recent takeover of the impoverished coastal strip.
Amman is fearful that Israel may attempt to revive the idea of a Jordanian-Palestinian confederation, while Egypt is concerned that the revolt may embolden the Muslim Brotherhood.
A senior Jordanian official said this week that the Hashemite Kingdom would “fight to stop the plan of appropriate the West Bank to its territory”.
Meanwhile, the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper reported that the passages between Jordan and the West Bank would be sealed off should Palestinians attempt to cross the border.
“Accepting the confederation principle means linking the Hashemite Kingdom with a nation without a land and would constitute political suicide,” an official in Amman said.
Jordanian Prime Minister Marouf Suleiman al-Bakhit said, “The confederation matter is not on the table at present time. It does not exist in Jordan’s political jargon.”
However, sources familiar with the political situation in Jordan said Hamas’ takeover of Gaza would not threaten the country.
“Jordan is the only place where the monarchy has survived for decades, and it is the only country that has survived coup attempts,” one source said. “The Jordanians know exactly what needs to be done to deal with the new situation.”
In Egypt, meanwhile, concern over Hamas’ revolt is also growing.
'Arab countries riding two horses at once'
Tariq Hasan, a columnist for the Egyptian government daily Al-Ahram wrote in an article also published on The Middle East Media Research Institute’s (MEMRI) website that, “In Egypt there are those who are trying to reproduce what Hamas did in Gaza.
"For anyone who has the slightest doubt about this and wants proof, it is sufficient to consider statements by Brotherhood representatives in parliament… They said that Egypt waved the Zionist flag, despite the people's opposition to this. This means that Egypt, like the Palestinian Authority, deserves that a revolution should take place in it.
The Brotherhood, like Hamas, does not recognize the legitimacy of the parliament that ratified the peace treaty with Israel, nor the legitimacy of the state that ratified these agreements, since (in its view) it is a traitorous state that works for foreign interests and that does not represent its people,” Hasan wrote.
“From these statements we understand that the Hamas problem is not (limited to) just Gaza, but it is also in Egypt, and that the Brotherhood holds the same positions and uses the same ideas and statements with which Hamas conducted a putsch against the (legitimate) government, and through which it declared Gaza a rebel region under its rule.”
Egyptian intellectual Ma'moun Fandy said Hamas was similar to a computer virus that threatened to destroy the Arab world.
"The Muslims must understand that the Hamas emirate is a model that the Islamists aim to implant in all their countries,” he wrote in an op-ed published by Al-Sharq Al-Awsat, which was also posted on MEMRI.
“(They want) all our countries to become two-headed entities, with Islamist rule (alongside) the rule of the state. All the Arab countries that are riding two horses at once - the national one and the Islamist one - will inevitably reach a crossroads at which each horse will go in a different direction.
Fandy continued to say that, “The two legs (on which the country stands) will split, and the country will split in two, (as is now happening with the Palestinians): one leg in Gaza, and the other in the West Bank.
"To use a metaphor from the programming world, the Arab region is like a computer with 22 directories, symbolizing the 22 (Arab) countries. If a virus attacks one of the directories, the programmer must delete that directory (along with) the virus, lest the virus infect the other directories and destroy the entire computer,” he wrote.
