MER - Washington - 11/12/97:

"Journalist" Rami Khouri speaks at American University tomorrow about "democracy in Jordan" and the recent "elections." Of course he's sponsored by those like him, in this case "Professor" Clovis Maksoud, one of the long-time Arab "representatives" in Washington who has for so long used his own rhetorical skills on behalf of so many of the Arab "client regimes" -- and been most handsomely rewarded for doing so.  (More about Maksoud and his wife Hala to come in the future -- for its very important to understand the realities of such Washington personalities as they continually manipulate institutions, including American University and Arab organizations like ADC and AAUG, on behalf of the despotic Arab regimes they actually serve, all the while masquerading as independent academics and intellectuals).
 
For those wanting more background about this overall situation, including about Rami Khouri and his de facto representation of  the Hashemite regime in Jordan, the following MER articles published earlier this year and assembled below should be of considerable interest:
 

LIE OF THE WEEK:

MER - Washington - 7/28/97:
 
Sadly, journalists are often used by the political establishment, rewarded for playing along, punished for speaking up honestly and independently.  This happens in many places of course, including in the West; but it happens far more severely in today's Arab world where the two words "independent" and "journalism" can hardly ever be used together without considerable hesitation and doubt. Rami Khouri is a talented writer, and a smart man; and he has managed to spread his regular column far and wide going back many years when he was Editor of the English-language Jordan Times in Amman.  Khouri is also among the darlings of the Washington establishment, often appearing on PBS "News Hour" (think of this nightly staple of American television as "State Department TV" when it comes to matters Middle Eastern); flying here and there to speak at this conference and that.
 
Unfortunately, Khouri is also a perfect example of those who lend their capable pens and mouths to those in political and financial control.  Indeed, Khouri is far more useful to the Jordanian Hashemite regime kept and controlled as he is; than being appointed to officially represent it.
 
If Jordan were anything close to a State that could be called a "democracy" King Hussein would never have been able to collude so openly with Israel for so long; and to sign the very unpopular peace treaty with Israel. The story of early Hashemite collaboration with the Israelis is well told in Prof. Avi Schlaim's COLLUSION ACROSS THE JORDAN (Oxford University Press).  The regimes close connections with and "subsidies" from the CIA are also matters of historical record, admittedly not usually remembered these days.
 
What Jordan is in reality is a somewhat disguised police state run by the monarchy, the army, and the vast intelligence apparatus.  This "Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan" uses a variety of sophisticated tactics to co-opt, neutralize, and repress all serious opposition -- political or intellectual.
 
Another "election" is ahead in Jordan later this year. After rigging everything both economically and politically, and after new "press regulations" that make just about any serious criticism of the regime or the "peace process" a criminal offense, those in control in Jordan use the "election" terminology to try to give a veneer of legitimacy to their rule.  Of course if you're among the small upper elite that share in this rule and wealth, all is OK.  It's just that for everyone else -- especially those who wish to speak up against what is happening and most of all the majority population of Palestinian origins -- the infamous secret police, the Muhabarat, is watching and waiting.
 
In view of this overall situation the most important "legal" opposition in Jordan has announced that it is not going to participate in this "election" sham.  And here's where people like Rami Khouri come in.
 
"If the boycott is implemented in November, it will damage the state's claim that our democratization process is credible and sustainable," Khouri recently wrote in a widely distributed column.  "How the state responds to this challenge will reveal much about whether we are experiencing genuine democratization or merely cosmetic changes that retain major decision-making power in the hands of a narrow power elite. This is a question being asked about, and in, many Arab countries that are also trying to move away from autocracy and towards more democratic politics," so Khouri has recently written in a widely distributed column.
 
"The Muslim Brotherhood and the Jordanian state are now both challenged before the court of public opinion," Khouri continues. "I suspect that the Brotherhood has made a mistake in deciding to boycott the elections, because the Islamists have always achieved their gains in Jordan by working within the national political consensus.  They should not quit the democratic game, but rather learn how to play the game better, even if they feel that the rules have been bent. Painful as it is for them, they must learn to operate as a minority..."
 
Khouri knows very well that what has happened in Jordan in recent years is indeed a series of "cosmetic changes", not anything even close to "genuine democracy".  He also knows very well that no serious opposition will be tolerated in Jordan by either the monarchy or the army; and that "elections" are a mere facade and palliative.
 
But Khouri chooses to use his pen and his mouth on behalf of the regime -- mostly for Western audiences in English -- because he is part of that "narrow elite" that benefits from the way things are.  He just forgets to mention this last crucial bit of
information.

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  QUOTE OF THE WEEK: "We'll Butcher Them" - Jordanian Realities
 

MER - Washington - 10/27/1997:

While King Hussein pretends otherwise in front of the cameras -- and he's become very good at the charade --  the realities of the Jordanian police-state are largely unreported by the "mainstream" media.  In the West Jordan  is considered a loyal ally and rarely do the realities of "the Hashemite Kingdom" get discussed; in the Middle East the press is simply repressed, coopted and controlled.
 
Most of the other Arab regimes are even worse than the Jordanian; consequently they are hardly going to allow reporting about repression and fear through which they also keep their people in a political stranglehold.
 
"Elections" are being held in Jordan again next month. In short, they are a sham.  The main opposition is boycotting.  Everyone else is either coopted, afraid, or trying to be uninvolved.  Simply said, the Monarchy and the Muhabarat (Secret Police) control Jordan today as in the past,  and even with recent developments the CIA (and the Mossad in recent years) are very much part of the scene keeping the Hashemites in power. The following eye-witness account took place at the University of Jordan in Amman last week, largely unreported and unknown.
 

I most feel obliged, as someone who happened to be at UJ since 9 in the morning, to try and say everything that I've heard and seen, since unfortunately there were no reporters, no journalists, no nothing. Yesterday, Tuesday Oct. 21st, our students' council at UJ distributed papers that told the story of how the student council chairman went to see some high-rank official to ask permission for a demonstration to take place today, Wednesday Oct. 22nd, at 11:00 am.  The cause behind the
demonstration was meant to be the demand of a Jordanian Student General Union.  Very surprisingly, students' council chairman was addressed very rudely, and threatened that if he and his fellow student-council members continue with this demand of theirs, he'll be arrested and sent where no one will ever know about him any more!! . . . feeling the burden of responsibility, our chairman insisted that the demonstration takes place, upon which the official's response was an even harsher threaten; one that is said to have been carried out this morning, arresting the chairman along with 4 other student-council members.

All that I've mentioned so far is merely what I've heard or read, but what follows is the really entertaining part; the one I've witnessed with my own eyes.  From 8:00 am this morning, the road leading directly to the main gate of the university was blocked for cars; only public buses were allowed in. Not less than 20 navy blue vans (the ones used for collective arresting) were lined outside the university main gate, along with something like 5 huge "things" that I've never seen before but was told that they're equipped with large water hoses to be used against demonstrators.  And last, but definitely NOT least, a group of approximately 350 public security men dressed in navy blue, with their helmets, clubs and pistols on, sitting on the ground of an area that may well cover a basketball field, ready, or maybe even eager, to attack!

I, like most of us out there, am still in a state of shock.  This is the only way I can describe how I've been feeling ever since that minute... I was so much distressed by the idea that something nasty may happen, I don't know what got to me, but I went and stood near the university fence, which was the only thing separating us from the "soldiers", and I couldn't help but address them and ask what they were intended to do; how far were they supposed to go if something happens.  I said: Are you gonna beat those students up???  I know it's stupid, but the answer I got from one of the men was: wallah lanla77emhom (we'll "butcher" them).

I happened to have a camera with me, one which I usually use to capture precious and rosy moments of my last year at UJ, and I did manage to get a photo of those fierce-looking men, although I then had to run faster than I've ever done before, since "el-faleeleh 3/4 el-marajel!" (for although those men cannot by any means get into the university campus, yet we do have our "ta3qeeb" security men, one of which was heading towards me, or so I suspected).  Fortunately enough, the demonstration
did not take place, and things went smoothly.  It was 15 minutes ago that I passed by UJ again.  The men were gone, vans nearly disappeared, but still elhamdilla there are 5 white vans, just in case . . . God, it was only a demonstration!

Jordanian democracy . . . HUH!

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MER - [5/31/97]
 
"The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan" masquerades these days as a pseudo-democracy in an attempt to mollify both Arab and Western public opinion -- most especially tourists and businessmen.  It reality of course Jordan is both a monarchy and a police-state; as anyone who opposes the King's policies and Hashemite control quickly finds out through visits from the secret police and to the dungeons that have long served the regime.

COLLUSION ACROSS THE JORDAN, by Professor Avi Schlaim at Oxford University, should be must-reading again these days.  This epic book is essentially the detailed secret history of Hashemite-Zionist collaboration and collusion earlier this century - a mostly hidden and secretive alliance that resulted in the dispossession of the Palestinians and the triumph of Israel in dominating the region.

Most of the most outrageous Jordanian-Israeli collusion -- and it has been expanding in recent years -- takes place behind the scenes of course.  Plus there is considerable under the table American "encouragement" and payments to the Jordanian regime for its willingness to play such a central role "peace" cum "domination" process.

Even today -- as Israel repeatedly continues to violate international laws, U.N. resolutions, and its own "peace" agreements -- essentially pushing the Palestinian onto shrinking ghettos surrounded by the Israeli army -- the Hashemites continue to expand their collaboration with the Zionists.  And by doing so the Hashemite actually encourage the worst aspects of Zionist ideology by confirming their ability to separate the Arab regimes from one another as well as the ease with which Israel can continue to play Hashemite domination off against Palestinian nationalism.

Amazingly, Minister Ariel Sharon and his Jordanian counterparts are right now moving quickly to establish a rail link between Jordan and Israel, one that will allow Jordan to use Israeli Israeli Mediterranean ports and further encourage Western and Jewish tourism to Jordan.  No matter what the Israelis do to the Palestinians, no matter how many Arab League resolutions call for boycotting Israel, the Hashemites persist, collecting as much in money, arms, and i.o.u.'s for the future as they can.

The following recent Reuters report, also exposes just one small element of the ongoing Hashemite-Zionist collusion whose history of treachery runs so deep:
 
         GAZA, May 24 (Reuters) - Jordan has handed over to Israel a Palestinian whose wife carried out a shooting attack last month at a crossing between the kingdom and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, his lawyer said on Saturday.
         Lawyer Hassan Abu Ahmad said Iyad Abu Libdeh, a Palestinian living in Amman but originally from the self-ruled West Bank town of Tulkarm, was arrested by Jordanian intelligence after his wife Souna opened fire at the Allenby Bridge crossing.
         Two Israelis and an Arab were wounded in the April 13 attack, which came against a backdrop of Palestinian anger over Israel's building of a Jewish settlement in East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in 1967. The woman was taken into Israeli custody.
         ``The fact that he is a Palestinian and was handed over by the Jordanian Intelligence to the Israelis but not to the Palestinian Authority raises serious legal questions,'' Abu Ahmad, an Israeli Arab, told Reuters.
         ``It is illegal. Abu Libdeh should have been handed over to the Palestinians and not to Israel,'' he said.
         Abu Ahmad said the Jordanians interrogated Abu Libdeh and when they found they could prove nothing handed him over to Israel on May 13. Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994.
         ``I visited him in an Israeli prison on May 21. He has strongly denied charges of aiding and training his wife...He is being
tortured and deprived of sleep for long periods of time,'' the lawyer said...
          Jordanian embassy officials in Israel and Israeli Prisons Authority officials were not available for comment. A spokesman for Israeli occupation authorities in the West Bank said he did not know the case.
 
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MID-EAST REALITIES - QUOTE of the Week: Ariel Sharon & the Jordanians

MORE COLLUSION ACROSS THE JORDAN - JORDAN UNDERMINES PALESTINIANS

MER - Washington - 6/1/97:
 
A few weeks ago, in what has becoming an ongoing series of usually secret talks, the top leaders of Israel and Jordan met in Aqaba, Jordan.  It has been learned that Minister of National Infrastructures, Ariel Sharon,  told the Israeli Cabinet, "They were nice, long talks."  Sharon went on to assure the Cabinet: "I emphasize that there were no concessions by Israel."
 
Supposedly these talks are primarily about water-related and trade-related issues; inclusing the building of a Jordanian-Israeli rail link which the Jordanians are eagerly pursuing even though the Arab League has called for a suspension of dealings with Israel. In reality the Zionist and Hashemite leaderships continue to plot how to control and repress the Palestinians in ever more crafty and ever more duplicitous ways.
 
King Hussein and Crown Prince Hassan are personally involved in these discussions and were present in Aqaba, as was Prime Minister Netanyahu and top level military commanders from both countries.  What is really going on is nothing less than a continuation of the long-time conspiracy involving the Hashemites and the Zionists to sandwich the Palestinian between them, depriving the Palestinians of real self-determination even while Arafat's "Palestinian Authority" continues to be allowed to pretend it is on the way to an independent Palestinian State.

Symbolically worst of all, the Hashemites show no sensitivity at all to the fact that among their main Israeli interlocutors is none other than Ariel Sharon, the most notorious of the Israeli Generals accused of war crimes and quite literally a butcher of Palestinians during his long military career.
 
In addition, Sharon is the man who has planted the Israeli flag right in the middle of the Muslim quarter in Jerusalem's old city. There he has forced on the Arabs his surreptitiously "purchased" apartment -- one which must be constantly constantly guarded by Uzi- armed Israeli combat troops -- and from whch he constantly displays a huge Israeli Menorah alongside the giant Star of David flag.

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The long collusion of the Hashemite Regime in Jordan with the Zionist movement is well-known to scholars and experts.  COLLUSION ACROSS THE JORDAN -- a brilliant historical expose  by Professor Avi Schlaim at Oxford University -- contains one shocking detail after another of how the Jordanians began cooperating with the pre-Israel Jewish immigrants to the region to undermine the Palestinians during the crucial decades of the 30s and 40s.
 
This collusion by a regime established by the British and then kept in power by the CIA has never ended.  Rather it was simply hidden from view and camouflaged for many years before King Hussein's recent public agreements with the Israelis -- for which he has been handsomely paid with American military arms, "economic assistance", and private assurances of his protection.
 
At the very time that the still weak and divided Arab League and many demoralized Palestinians are calling for sanctions and boycotts, the Jordanians continue to race ahead with economic, political, and military deals with the Israelis.  This contemporary collusion has even included visits by the notorious Arlel Sharon to Jordan during recent months, including meetings with the King, Crown Prince, and senior military persons.   One can imagine of course the kinds of things being discussed and the kinds of plots being hatched.  And indeed Sharon has these "successes" to catapult himself to greater power in Israel in recent days.
 
Jordan's most recent dealings with Israel -- other than the growing behind-the-scenes intelligence and military cooperation -- have to do with joint tourism and railroad projects which the Israelis are very eager to pursue.
 
And on the political front the Jordanians continue to insist on interfering with the Palestinians on many matters relating to the occupied territories and Jerusalem.  Just in the past few days a top level Jordanian delegation has arrived in Israel to "mediate" between Christian and Moslem groups over the Hanka Mosque. Unable to get even the terribly compromised and corrupt "Palestinian Authority" to do want it wants in Jerusalem, the Israelis have turned to the Jordanians and are once again using them to further their goals in Jerusalem.
 
Meanwhile, press restrictions have been significantly escalated by the Hashemite Regime since the public Israeli-Jordanian peace treat in order to minimize public awareness and discussion of the magnitude of Jordanian cooperation with Israel.  In short, its a most despicable situation.