Barry Rubin On Why Jordan's PM Doesn't Like 'Rubin Reports'

Jordan’s Prime Minister Reads ‘Rubin Reports’ and–guess what–doesn’t like it! Plus Palestinian Leader Involved in Corruption Tells Us Culture Doesn’t Matter in Undermining Economic Development

by Barry Rubin

During a recent dinner in Amman, Jordan’s prime minister Prime Minister Fayez Tarawneh talked about me at some length, citing my PJMedia article on Israel being in a good strategic situation. Apart from the various name-calling, insults, and snorting, he could not refute one point I made. In fact, I think he knows that everything I wrote was true. And that’s what scares him and makes him angry.

What particularly upset him was my point that a Sunni-Shia conflict would displace the Arab-Israeli conflict. Jordan, of course, is caught in the middle, being a Sunni country with a long border with Iraq and fearing Iran, not to mention its border with a Syria which is still ruled by Iran’s ally, and nearby Lebanon ruled by Shia Hizballah.

But I think his attacking me was most unsporting. King Hussein read my articles years ago on a regular basis and I have had excellent relations with some members of the royal family and high-ranking Jordanian officials. I even advocated the Saudis and other oil-producers’ plan to let Jordan into the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and give Amman $1 billion.


Fayez, baby, don’t be mad at me for passing along the bad news! And if there’s anything I can do to help Jordan not be taken over by either revolutionary Shia Islamists who will want to put you up against a wall and shoot you, Sunni Islamists (most likely the Muslim Brotherhood) who will want to put you up against a wall and shoot you, or al-Qaida which won’t even bother with the wall, let me know.

Continue reading Jordan’s Prime Minister Reads ‘Rubin Reports’ and–guess what–doesn’t like it! Plus Palestinian Leader Involved in Corruption Tells Us Culture Doesn’t Matter in Undermining Economic Development

Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). His latest book is Israel: An Introduction, was published by Yale University Press in January 2012. You can read more of Barry Rubin's posts at Rubin Reports, and  Rubin Reports, on Pajamas Media


Technorati Tag: Jordan and Palestine and Munib Masri.