Of the two neighboring Arab countries upholding their peace accords with Israel, Jordan is always of more concern to strategic planners in Tel Aviv and their Cabinet in Jerusalem. Egypt’s mainland is far away, across the Sinai Desert, and its regime seems relatively safe. But the Hashemite Kingdom has to contend with a Palestinian majority, cells of Jihadi groups, a vocal opposition to the economic policies of King Abdullah and security problems in nearby southern Syria. Israel has excellent working relations between its military and intelligence agencies and their Jordanian ones, and it has done its share to alleviate the chronic water problem arid Jordan suffers from, but there is constant fear west of the river that the Hashemite dynasty is just one bullet away from being toppled, leaving Israel vulnerable along its backbone. Can Israel bank on the East Bank to renain quiet?
To analyse it, we are joined from Jerusalem by Dr. Joshua Krasna, Lecturer on intelligence and Mideast security at NYU and Research Fellow at Moshe Dayan center at Tel Aviv University. Joining us from central Israel is Col. (Res.) Reuven Ben-Shalom, TV7 Powers-in-Play Panelist, Cross-Cultural Strategist and Associate at ICT, Reichman University, and Amir Oren, TV7 Editor at Large, Host of TV7 Watchmen Talk.
