AMMAN — Twenty-seven years ago today, on
July 25th, 1994, His Majesty King Hussein, US president Bill Clinton, and
Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin signed the Washington Declaration at the
White House in Washington DC. The agreement formally brought an end to
forty-six years of war between the Kingdom and Israel in the aftermath of the
Oslo Accords.
اضافة اعلان
The declaration was designed for the
“achievement of a just, lasting, and comprehensive peace between Arab states
and the Palestinians, with Israel.” The document also guaranteed Hashemite
control over the Islamic holy sites in Jerusalem, established direct telephone
links between Jordan and Israel, opened two new border crossings between the
nations, linking of power grids, and security cooperation. Just months later,
the two countries signed the Wadi Araba peace treaty and established mutual
diplomatic relations.
At the time, the declaration served as a
beacon of hope for a lasting solution to Israeli occupation and Palestinian
sovereignty. But according to experts speaking with Jordan News, the
declaration now serves as a reminder of how little the peace process has
accomplished for Palestine and Jordan both.
Mohammad Al-Momani, former minister of
information and member of the Senate, told Jordan News that the
declaration “is a reminder of the great days when great leaders led their
people and fought the battle to bring peace against all odds.”
“Compare that to (Benjamin) Netanyahu’s
populism and then you see the drastic difference,” he said.
According to Oraib Rantawi, founder and
director general of the Amman-based Al-Quds Center for Political Studies, the
declaration was formed during a region-wide effort to “reach comprehensive
peace in the region” with regards to a variety of key issues, with finance,
refugees, water, security, among them.
After the Oslo Accords were signed in
1993, “Jordan found itself in a position to also conclude a deal,” said Rantawi
in an interview with Jordan News. Rantawi explained that Palestine and
the ongoing occupation were the main issues between Jordan and Israel. Once
Palestinian authorities settled their own agreements on thornier issues, like
refugee resettlements, self-determination, and the annexation of Palestinian
land, “little remained for Jordan to discuss with the Israelis: security,
cooperation, the economy.” Therefore, it took little time after the declaration
for the peace treaty to be signed.
But almost three decades later, “Israel
today is not the same,” said Rantawi, and the declaration has a different
valence than it did then. He said that the left-wing and peace camps in Israel
have lost power since the declaration was signed — and the extreme right-wing
parties have grown more and more powerful.
“We saw the increasing influence of the
religious groups, Israeli politics and daily life,” he said. “Israel is
changing systematically.”
The analyst pointed out the rise of both
religious and nationalist right-wing parties in Israel who increasingly control
the country’s political dynamics. “You will see after each election, the far
right always gains more and more ground,” he said. “We saw also the increasing
influence of the settler lobbies, which is also combined with far right and
religious groups.”
According to Rantawi, the peace process
signaled by the Washington Declaration and the Oslo Accords “started to
collapse early, since (Benjamin) Netanyahu’s first government.” He pointed to
the 1997 Israeli assassination attempt against Hamas leader Khaled Mashal in
Jordan as one example of the collapse of these processes.
“Now with the far right, they pay less
attention to the Jordan-Israeli relationship,” he said. “The value of Jordan
from their perspective is getting less and less. Their priorities changed: It
is all about annexation, Jerusalem” and the expansion of illegal settlements in
the West Bank.
However, Rantawi argued that under the
new Israeli government, there is “pressure on Israel to restore this
relationship” between Jordan and Israel, through agreements like the water
deal. He described new Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett as “more polite
with Jordan than Netanyahu.”
For Rantawi, 27 years after the
declaration was signed and just months after violence exploded in the West Bank
and Gaza, the current situation between Israel, Jordan, and Palestine foretells
more crises soon.
“I think that we have a serious problem
after the collapse of the peace process, lack of the opportunity of the
two-state solution, lack of opportunity for a viable Palestinian state,” he
said. A “Palestinian viable state is good for Jordan, better than any other
alternative.”
“Maybe not now, but we are heading
towards more crises, if they don’t make it possible to have a two-state
solution.”
Momani likewise emphasized the
importance of a two-state solution to fulfill the hopes of the
Declaration. “Peace is unfinished
business that needs to be completed, and that will require courage and
commitment to international legitimacy and the two state solution,” he said.
“Since we engaged in peace talks with
Israel, we continue to be committed to the spirit of peace,” he said. “The end
game for us is a sustainable, just, comprehensive peace that will bring
stability and prosperity to the peoples of the region. Every effort to disrupt
peace that is based on the two-state solution — like what Netanyahu did — goes
directly against the strategic interests of Jordan.”
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