Jordan-Israel peace agenda trumps PLO-UN war agenda

Jordan and Israel are becoming enmeshed in a binational agenda requiring urgent direct negotiations - which if successfully concluded - could end the 100-years old Jewish-Arab conflict.

That agenda includes:

1. Redrawing the existing Jordan-Israel international boundary after allocating sovereignty in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) between their two respective States.

2. Clarifying the right of Jews to enter and pray at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem - currently controlled by Jordan as Custodian of the Islamic holy sites

3. Renewing 25 year leases of two areas leased by Jordan to Israel for agricultural use that expire next year.

4. Increasing the amount of water currently being supplied by Israel to Jordan

5. Progressing the feasibility of constructing the Mediterranean-Dead Sea Canal

6. Financing the Red Sea–Dead Sea Water Conveyance - a planned pipeline that runs from the coastal city of Aqaba to the Lisan area in the Dead Sea.

Jordan and Israel's Peace Treaty - signed in 1994 - has successfully withstood serious pressures that could have seen it's revocation in:

• September 1997 – when an Israeli attempt to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Meshall was botched
• May 2014 – when Jordan recalled its ambassador from Israel "in protest at the increasing and unprecedented Israeli escalation in the Noble Sanctuary, and the repeated Israeli violations of Jerusalem,"
• July 2017 – when an armed guard at the Israeli embassy in Amman opened fire after being attacked with a screw driver by a teenager who was delivering furniture to a home within the embassy compound – killing his attacker and the owner of the property.

However cool heads and common-sense prevailed on both sides on those occasions to prevent the Peace Treaty being trashed.

In contrast – the lack of any peace agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) has caused negotiations between Israel and the PLO to be conducted over the last 25 years in an atmosphere of confrontation and mutual distrust.