Senior diplomat slams Jordan for berating Israel to domestic audience

A senior Israeli diplomatic official blasts Jordan for playing a “double game” in its response to recent unrest in Jerusalem by publicly lambasting Israel on the one hand while speaking much more reasonably behind closed doors.

“They tell us that this is the way that they keep those calling for Jordan to sever its ties with Israel at bay,” the diplomatic official says during a briefing with reporters, part of which is held on condition of anonymity.

“I’m prepared to accept this double game up to a certain point, but the line was crossed with the prime minister’s speech in parliament,” the official says, referring to Bisher Al-Khasawneh’s remarks earlier this week in which he praised the Palestinians hurling stones at the “Zionist sympathizers defiling the Al-Aqsa Mosque.”

The senior diplomatic official says no country can put up with this kind of speech from a fellow ally and that this message was passed along to Amman at a level of assertiveness that the Jordanians are not used to.