September 15, 2011

People move to cut Jordan's ties to Israel

Here's a remarkable piece on the MSNBC news site.
Israel was evacuating its embassy in Jordan on Wednesday in advance of a demonstration promoted on Facebook under a banner "No Zionist embassy on Jordanian territory," The Jerusalem Post reported without citing sources.


Security forces in Jordan were preparing for the protest, which was scheduled to take place Thursday at the embassy in Amman, Israel's Ynet news reported. Armored vehicles and security officers were stationed at the building, according to the website.


The move comes days after the Israeli Embassy in Cairo was ransacked by hundreds of protesters, forcing the the ambassador to flee the country.


Story: Israeli PM condemns embassy attack in Cairo


Elsewhere in Amman, demonstrators demanded the closing of the U.S. Embassy in Jordan over WikiLeaks cables suggesting covert U.S. plans to turn Jordan into a home for Palestinians.
It was a rare anti-American demonstration in Jordan, a close ally of the U.S.
The 70 activists burned American and Israeli flags in a noisy protest opposite the embassy in Amman on Wednesday.
They chanted, "The people want the Americans out."
Roughly half of the country's 6 million population is of Palestinian origin. With Palestinian-Israeli peace talks stalled, some Jordanians fear Israel may try to deport Palestinians to Jordan.
This week Jordan's King Abdullah II spoke out strongly against using Jordan as a substitute for a Palestinian state, a concept favored by a tiny extremist minority among Israelis.
This is fascinating. Could King Abdullah really be so poorly informed as to speak out against another ethnic cleansing campaign if only a "tiny extremist minority among Israelis" supports the idea?

It's good news that ordinary people in the front line states are severing diplomatic relations with Israel but the fears expressed at the end of this article go to the heart of Israel's existence. Ethnic cleansing is certainly extreme when it happens in most places but in Israel it is considered the norm.

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