Another Jordanian knife in Israel's back 
Another Jordanian knife in Israel's back

Israelis are at a loss to explain why the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) has turned Israel into its main target. Why is it so blatantly skewed against Israel? The answer, or at least part of it, wad provided on September 28, 2017.

Haaretz's top headline that day read: "The UN warns companies doing business in the settlements that their names will be put on a blacklist. Some of them announced that they are to leave Israel." Underneath the headline it wrote: "The human rights representative began sending warnings to close to 150 companies. Israeli official: foreign companies do not differentiate between companies within Israel and those in the West Bank and simply cease their operations in Israel."

Barak Ravid wrote: 'The UN Human Rights Commissioner, who heads the HRC, Jordanian prince Zaid bin Raid (should be Raad, m.k.) al Hussein began sending warning letters two weeks ago..."

Get it? The UN Human Rights Commissioner, the head of the UN Human Rights Council which has decided to make Israel its chief whipping boy, is a Jordanian and a second cousin of father of the current monarch, the late King Hussein, a central figure in the Hashemite family brought in  by Great Britain to rule the country at its formation.. Zaid Ben Raad is very close to the present ruler, King Abdullah II, has served as Jordan's UN delegate for seven years and was Jordanian ambassador to the US for three. He was an active member of various international organizations and in 2014 was chosen to be UN Commissioner for Human Rights. He is the person behind the unbridled HRC attacks on Israel.

.

Anyone who understands the significance of serving as delegate to the UN and US ambassador realizes immediately that the person serving in those positions has to be very, very close to the monarch and is certainly his confidant, someone who is in constant touch with the king. The word "close" does not come anywhere near to describing the significance of that relationship and of the prince's appointment as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The king pushed for that appointment for his cousin. Why? What for? To advance the rights of Jordanian women? To supervise the king's treatment of Jordan's Palestinian Arab majority? To check on what happens to the international aid sent for the Syrian refugees in Jordan as it makes its tortuous way to those tent-dwelling unfortunates?

Of course not. The king pushed for his relative's appointment for one reason alone - to malign Israel and to destroy its name and reputation by means of damning reports issued by this relative, all intended to force Israel to establish another Palestinian Arab terror state in Judea and Samaria whose capital is in eastern Jerusalem. This way, the king and his extended family, including Mr. Zaid ben Raad himself, will be able to  continue to rule over the millions of Palestinians living in the artificial country named "The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan" instead of granting the Palestinians a state in northwest Jordan where, as it happens, they constitute the majority of residents. 

True, the HRC did not begin its attacks on Israel in  2014, with Ziad ben Raad's appointment. The HRC has a long and negative record on Israel spanning the many years of its existence prior to 2014, but it is the reason King Abdullah wanted his kinsman at the head of the Council. A Council which is anti-Israel to begin with would make his goal easier to attain and make it easy to pass resolutions such as the one supporting the Arab economic boycott of Israel.

Zaid ben Raad is proving his loyalty to the family and living up to the expectations of his cousin. He has sent out warning letters to  companies operating in Israel. Abdullah II, the Hashemite ruler, is sticking a knife into Israel's back, while Israeli poiticians still go on and on about how "peace with Jordan is a strategic asset," failing to realize that  the king is embracing them with one hand and planting a sword in their backs withthe other.

Israel, if it continues to laud peace with Jordan, will end up with a long term payment of kassam rockets raining on Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Dimona, Afula and everything in between, including Ben Gurion Airport, coming from a Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria- in exchange for the temporary quiet we now have along the Jordanian border. it will be a repeat of Gaza's rocket attacks.

If this is how a friend behaves, I cannot imagine how an enemy does. It is time to wake up and think of another plan for relations with the Hashemite kingdom. It seems to me that some of our politicians are inexperienced when it comes to understanding the Middle East's complexities and that others have fallen asleep at the wheel, so that they do not notice the warning roadside signs - perhaps because they are in Arabic.

Note: This a rticle is a continuation of my last article on Jordan.

Written for Arutz Sheva, translated from Hebrew by Rochel Sylvetsky, Senior Consultant and Op-ed Editor,  Arutz Sheva English site.