After five years without public appearances of this nature, King Abdullah II of Jordan hosted Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid. The King did not meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu in the last three years of his term and held a meeting without media coverage with Prime Minister Bennett.
One can understand the motives of Prime Minister Lapid, pitted against Opposition and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, in a struggle that will culminate in the elections on November 1. Netanyahu will want to present to voters his rich experience as an international statesman, and Lapid will want to prove to the Israeli voter that he is accepted by the ranks of leaders of countries with whom relations to Israel are essential. Therefore, President Biden's visit was indeed important to Israel, but also to Lapid on a political-personal level, as were Lapid's conversations with French President Emmanuel Macron and Charles Michel, the president of the European council.
The Jordanian King met the Israeli Prime Minister because the meeting also served his political goals. The King of Jordan is not up for election in the familiar sense, but he must grapple with Jordan’s demographic reality, with more than half of its citizens Palestinian refugees and their descendants, and most of whom oppose the peace agreement and normalization with Israel. The report issued by the King's palace about the meeting with Lapid and which was picked up by the Jordanian media, including the digital networks, shows the interest of King Abdullah.
According to this report, the King presented to Lapid the full Jordanian formula for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the need for a political horizon, and for a just, comprehensive, and sustainable political solution based on two states. The King made it clear to his Israeli guest that the Palestinians are part of regional security and development. At this point, the King mentioned President Biden, as the latter reiterated several times during his recent Middle East visit the need to resolve the conflict on the basis of two states, and thus the King hinted to Israel (and also to the US) that it should not try to bypass the Palestinians within the framework of the Abraham Accords or with the idea of a regional NATO. The King returned to the issue of Jerusalem, the apple of his eye, and reminded Lapid of the need to preserve its legal and historical status quo and the Muslim and Christian holy sites.
At the least, and almost as a postscript, the conversation, according to the palace announcement, also dealt with water and energy issues without specifying they are existential issues for Jordan. King Abdullah's father, King Hussein, insisted that in the 1994 peace treaty with Israel, the section dealing with the relations of the states on the issue of water would appear before the issue of Jerusalem (by the way, in the section dealing with Jerusalem, Jordan's role regarding the Christian holy sites is not mentioned).
The meeting was therefore used by the palace to report to the citizens of Jordan, especially the Palestinians, to the heads of Arab states, and especially the President of the Palestinian Authority and the President of the United States, that the King did meet with the Prime Minister of Israel, but devoted most of the meeting to the Palestinian issue. Furthermore, it is possible the King also wanted to signal that Jordan's involvement in the various regional programs that include Israel depends on the participation of the Palestinians.
Some will say that the mere resumption of open contact between the King of Jordan and the Prime Minister of Israel is important in and of itself. Yet the state of relations in the entire civilian sector requires the introduction of practical content into the relationship on issues vital to both countries and a discussion that goes beyond the exchange of slogans on the issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Jerusalem.
After five years without public appearances of this nature, King Abdullah II of Jordan hosted Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid. The King did not meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu in the last three years of his term and held a meeting without media coverage with Prime Minister Bennett.
One can understand the motives of Prime Minister Lapid, pitted against Opposition and Likud leader Benjamin Netanyahu, in a struggle that will culminate in the elections on November 1. Netanyahu will want to present to voters his rich experience as an international statesman, and Lapid will want to prove to the Israeli voter that he is accepted by the ranks of leaders of countries with whom relations to Israel are essential. Therefore, President Biden's visit was indeed important to Israel, but also to Lapid on a political-personal level, as were Lapid's conversations with French President Emmanuel Macron and Charles Michel, the president of the European council.
The Jordanian King met the Israeli Prime Minister because the meeting also served his political goals. The King of Jordan is not up for election in the familiar sense, but he must grapple with Jordan’s demographic reality, with more than half of its citizens Palestinian refugees and their descendants, and most of whom oppose the peace agreement and normalization with Israel. The report issued by the King's palace about the meeting with Lapid and which was picked up by the Jordanian media, including the digital networks, shows the interest of King Abdullah.
According to this report, the King presented to Lapid the full Jordanian formula for solving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: the need for a political horizon, and for a just, comprehensive, and sustainable political solution based on two states. The King made it clear to his Israeli guest that the Palestinians are part of regional security and development. At this point, the King mentioned President Biden, as the latter reiterated several times during his recent Middle East visit the need to resolve the conflict on the basis of two states, and thus the King hinted to Israel (and also to the US) that it should not try to bypass the Palestinians within the framework of the Abraham Accords or with the idea of a regional NATO. The King returned to the issue of Jerusalem, the apple of his eye, and reminded Lapid of the need to preserve its legal and historical status quo and the Muslim and Christian holy sites.
At the least, and almost as a postscript, the conversation, according to the palace announcement, also dealt with water and energy issues without specifying they are existential issues for Jordan. King Abdullah's father, King Hussein, insisted that in the 1994 peace treaty with Israel, the section dealing with the relations of the states on the issue of water would appear before the issue of Jerusalem (by the way, in the section dealing with Jerusalem, Jordan's role regarding the Christian holy sites is not mentioned).
The meeting was therefore used by the palace to report to the citizens of Jordan, especially the Palestinians, to the heads of Arab states, and especially the President of the Palestinian Authority and the President of the United States, that the King did meet with the Prime Minister of Israel, but devoted most of the meeting to the Palestinian issue. Furthermore, it is possible the King also wanted to signal that Jordan's involvement in the various regional programs that include Israel depends on the participation of the Palestinians.
Some will say that the mere resumption of open contact between the King of Jordan and the Prime Minister of Israel is important in and of itself. Yet the state of relations in the entire civilian sector requires the introduction of practical content into the relationship on issues vital to both countries and a discussion that goes beyond the exchange of slogans on the issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Jerusalem.