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.

Missing Peace: Jordan and the ‘Arab Spring’

The following by Missing Peace is reposted with permission:

Jordan and the ‘Arab Spring’

by Missing Peace

Jordan’s ‘Arab Spring’ protests started as a peaceful small-scale demo against corruption in the town of Theeban in January 2011. Since then the protests have spread out to the outlying governorates, along with the rise of so-called popular movements. However, the unrest never reached the magnitude of the uprisings in countries such as Yemen, Egypt and Libya.

As in other Arab countries, protests in Jordan were being led by the Islamist movement, which dominates the political opposition, as well as by the popular protest movement which includes numerous pro-reform organizations.

Protests

The Jordanians mainly protested against corruption and favoritism.

Demonstrators called for investigations into regime corruption at almost all the protests.

Later the protests were directed against the worsening economic situation in the country. The deterioration of the economic situation is alarming as it could lead to a full-blown revolution as happened earlier in Tunis and Egypt.

Jordanian demonstrators demanded reform and change general in a peaceful way. Lately however, some protests have turned violent. Last week dozens of people were injured during clashes between Salafists and pro-government demonstrators in the city of Zarqa.

Compared to the protests in other countries across the region, those in Jordan have been relatively few. This situation can be explained by a lack of organizational skills among the few political parties and an effective security system. In addition, from the outset of the protests consensus existed that political and economic reform – not regime change – were the solution.

Palestinians

The fact that the Palestinians, who make up almost two thirds of the population, have not joined the protests may explain why there hasn’t been a full-blown revolution in Jordan.

However, the Palestinian Arabs in Jordan have good reasons to be angry at King Abdullah and his government.