Leaders of the US and Jordan met this Tuesday in Washington and condemned Israel for invading Rafah at the same time as both countries have been supporting Israel with all their might since October 7.
This Tuesday, US President Joe Biden met with King Abdullah II of Jordan in an informal private meeting at the White House in Washington. During the two-hour long meeting, both leaders asserted that they support immediate peace agreement between Israel and Hamas and condemned Israel’s invasion on Rafah, urging Tel Aviv to withdraw from the southern city on Gaza.
In a statement following the meeting, the Jordan royal court said that “the king warned of the repercussions of the Israeli ground offensive on Rafah, which could cause a regional spillover of the conflict.”
The statement further noted that “his Majesty stressed the importance of all efforts that seek an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and the king and the U.S. president both affirmed their commitment to working to reach a sustainable ceasefire in Gaza, stressing the importance of facilitating the delivery of sustainable humanitarian aid to the Strip in light of the dire needs.”
The White House also issued a statement following the meeting and said that “in a phone call on Monday, President Biden had already pressed PM Benjamin Netanyahu not to go ahead with a large-scale Israeli military offensive in Rafah. The U.S. president has been vocal in his demand that Israel not undertake a ground offensive in Rafah without a plan to protect Palestinian civilians.”
It was on Monday that Israel started airs strikes in Rafah and urged Palestinians to evacuate the city where more than one and a half million homeless people are crowded together. The attack happened while a day before on Sunday, Hamas asserted that it had agreed to a ceasefire agreement proposed by the US and Egypt.
Washington and Amman could jointly win the Oscar for hypocrisy in Gaza War!
While both Joe Biden and King Abdullah II of Jordan seem to be too concerned about the war in Gaza and look for an immediate peace agreement, their actions in regard to Israel are ironically contradictory.
In other words, despite vocal opposition to Israel’s war in Gaza and the latest invasion of the Israeli military on Rafah, both Washington and Amman have been fully supporting Israel’s war machine since the start of the war on October 7.
The US, for example, has been backing Israel by issuing multiple vetos against ceasefire resolutions brought forward by various nations throughout the past six months of the war to the United Nations. Washington has also continued arms sales to Israel while pushing Hamas to accept a ceasefire.
Likewise, pro-Palestinian statements of King Abdullah II have only domestic consumption and are said to satisfy the Jordanian people who have always wanted an end to the Gaza war.
In fact, both Jordan and the United States, while sometimes strongly criticizing Tel Aviv’s genocide in Gaza, have always stood by Israel’s side during the war and provided unprecedented support to Israel. In addition to the financial, military and political support of the United States to Israel, the Kingdom of Jordan has also protected Israel’s interests by different means at different times.
Jordan has always severely suppressed anti-war protests inside its borders since the beginning of the Gaza war. The Kingdom also used its jet fighters and airspace in April to help shoot down Iranian drones during the operation known as “Honest Promise” and provided unprecedented protection to Israel. The move sharply increased Israel’s hopes of creating an anti-Iranian coalition with the cooperation of the Arab countries of the region under the leadership of the United States.
