Almost a decade of the tumultuous relationship between Jordan’s King Abdullah II and Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu finally boiled over last week when Amman scuttled what was to be a historic visit by the Israeli premier to the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
On March 10, Jordan’s Crown Prince Hussein had to cancel a pre-arranged trip at the last minute to East Jerusalem’s Al-Haram Al-Sharif (what Israel calls the Temple Mount) when Israel, according to Jordan, violated the visit’s protocols. Israel had claimed that the cancellation of the trip was the result of disagreements over security arrangements to protect the Jordanian royal, which Jordan had denied.