Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
08TELAVIV2043
2008-09-08 12:02:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Tel Aviv
Cable title:
ISRAELI AND JORDANIAN VIEWS ON DETERIORATING
how-toVZCZCXYZ0004 PP RUEHWEB DE RUEHTV #2043/01 2521202 ZNY CCCCC ZZH P 081202Z SEP 08 FM AMEMBASSY TEL AVIV TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 8336 INFO RUEHAM/AMEMBASSY AMMAN PRIORITY 4712 RUEHEG/AMEMBASSY CAIRO PRIORITY 2719 RUEHLB/AMEMBASSY BEIRUT PRIORITY 4364 RUEHJM/AMCONSUL JERUSALEM PRIORITY 0402 RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L TEL AVIV 002043
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/03/2018
TAGS: PREL KWBG KPAL KISL JO IS
SUBJECT: ISRAELI AND JORDANIAN VIEWS ON DETERIORATING
RELATIONS
REF: A. AMMAN 2483
B. AMMAN 2453
C. JERUSALEM 1616
D. TEL AVIV 1869
E. TEL AVIV 1834
F. TEL AVIV 1535
Classified By: DCM Luis Moreno for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).
C O N F I D E N T I A L TEL AVIV 002043
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/03/2018
TAGS: PREL KWBG KPAL KISL JO IS
SUBJECT: ISRAELI AND JORDANIAN VIEWS ON DETERIORATING
RELATIONS
REF: A. AMMAN 2483
B. AMMAN 2453
C. JERUSALEM 1616
D. TEL AVIV 1869
E. TEL AVIV 1834
F. TEL AVIV 1535
Classified By: DCM Luis Moreno for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).
1. (C) Summary: PolOff met with Jordanian PolOff Asem
Ababneh (please protect) September 2 to discuss the rising
tensions between Jordan and Israel. Ababneh complained that
Israel is taking Jordan for granted and is no longer acting
in good faith on a range of issues, including the peace
process and Jerusalem. He said King Abdallah's August 28
interview with L'Express and FM Al-Bashir's August 21
convocation of P-5 Ambassadors over the Mughrabi Gate issue
(ref. B) were intended as wake-up calls to Israel. "We are
tired of being taken for granted by Israel." In a separate
meeting with PolCouns, Israeli MFA DDG for the Middle East
Yacov Hadas said he was aware of Jordan's frustrations and
sense of being ignored, but stressed that Israel also had
complaints about Jordanian behavior. He said the Israelis
were particularly irked by Jordan's confiscation of Jewish
religious articles from Israeli travelers, as well as several
recent comments by senior officials publicly accusing Israel
of desecrating the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount. End summary.
Jordanian Embassy: They're Taking us for Granted
-------------- ---
2. (C) Ababneh said that FM Bashir's decision to convoke P-5
Ambassadors over the Mughrabi Gate (ref. B) was taken after
years of mounting frustration over the issue. According to
Ababneh, Jordan has been asking since 2004, when the original
ramp collapsed, for GOI permission to finance and execute a
new access ramp for the Mughrabi Gate. Jordan views the ramp
as an integral part of the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount
itself, he said, and thus subject to Jordan's rights under
Article 9 of the 1994 peace treaty. He stressed that every
Jordanian request to the Israeli government to allow Jordan
to initiate the project was accompanied by an offer to allow
GOI experts to participate in the process. He said Israel
either rejected or ignored every Jordanian approach on the
issue and yet failed to provide any suggestions of its own.
Ababneh said Jordan was aware of but unable to accept the GOI
position that the access ramp was not subject to the 1994
treaty because it fell outside the mount's outer walls. The
access ramp belongs to the Haram, he said, much like the
front steps of a house belong to that house.
3. (C) Asked about the new GOI plans for the site, which
reportedly take a number of Jordanian concerns into account,
Ababneh agreed that the revised Israeli plans were better
than past iterations, but stressed that the issue was
political, not technical, and that no GOI-led effort would
ever be acceptable to Jordan. He said the Jordanians would
be happy to let the GOI participate in a Jordanian-led
project, but could not acquiesce to Israel having the lead.
He added that even the decision to participate in the UNESCO
process was difficult for Jordan, and was taken only after a
long and heated debate over the relative merits of ceding
Jordan's "prerogative" over the site to an outside party,
even UNESCO. In the end, he said, Jordan chose the UNESCO
track out of necessity, to break the impasse with Israel and
to ensure the preservation of the status quo, which Jordan
fears Israel is trying to uproot. At the same time, Jordan
expects to have the lead in implementing any UNESCO-developed
plan. Ababneh said Jordan thought it was making progress
after Israel agreed to participate in the UNESCO track.
However, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee's recent
decision to approve the revised Israeli plans, rather than
deferring to UNESCO, left Jordan feeling betrayed. He said
Jordan suspects Israel is using the UNESCO track as cover to
fend off international criticism, all the while proceeding
with its own unilateral plans.
4. (C) According to Ababneh, the Mughrabi Gate is only one
of several Jerusalem issues driving a wedge between Israel
and Jordan. Israel's ongoing excavations and the increasing
pace of settlement activity in and around the Old City are
driving Jordanian suspicions that Israel is rushing to
strengthen its hold on Jerusalem ahead of any talks with the
Palestinians over the city's status. He said Israel's
traditional cooperation with Jordan on Jerusalem issues was
also declining, and that Jordanian attempts at coordination
were being met by increasingly hostile Israeli responses.
"We coordinated very well in the past," he said, "but now it
is very difficult." By way of examples, he cited the
increasing difficulty of getting the Israeli police and Shin
Bet to allow any renovation work on the Haram
al-Sharif/Temple Mount, and the increasing harassment during
the past year of Jordanian officials and Muslim worshipers
seeking to enter the site for work or prayer. Ababneh said
that even the Jordanian Ambassador and other diplomats,
including himself, were harassed every time they tried to
enter the site. The police "yell at us and tell us the Haram
is Israeli property and we have no right to be there," he
said. Asked whether they approached the MFA for help with
such issues, Ababneh said yes, but that it had done little
good since MFA officials tell them to talk to the police. He
added that the Ambassador had tried on numerous occasions to
meet with Minister of Internal Security Avi Dichter to
discuss these problems, but that Dichter's office had refused
every request.
5. (C) Beyond the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount and Mughrabi
Gate issues, Jordan is also frustrated with Israel over the
lack of progress in the peace process. According to Ababneh,
Israel's failure to halt settlement expansion or make serious
efforts to ease restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank
had left Jordan questioning Israel's commitment to peace with
the Palestinians. He cited King Abdallah's August 28
interview with L'Express as an important development, since
the King's decision to publicly air Jordan's mounting
frustrations is a major new development, and should send a
signal to Israel that Jordan is not going to continue
watching quietly as its interests get trampled by Israel's
refusal to move forward with the Palestinians.
MFA: We Have Complaints Too
--------------
6. (C) Pol Couns discussed Israel's view of relations with
Jordan with MFA Deputy Director General for the Middle East
Yacov Hadas September 4. Regarding the Mughrabi Gate ramp,
Hadas complained that Jordan was inflaming the situation,
with Jordanian officials making public comments that Israel
was desecrating the Haram Al-Sharif. Hadas said that the
Israelis had assured the Jordanians that Jordan could
supervise the ramp construction and confirm that there were
no secret tunnels to undermine the holy mosques. Hadas
insisted that the revised ramp construction plans were in
accordance with UNESCO guidelines for protecting world
heritage sites and incorporated a number of features of the
alternative plan proposed by Jordan. In any event, Hadas
said that the approval process for the ramp was not yet
complete and no construction could take place due to an
appeal by an Arab member of Knesset. Hadas insisted,
however, that Israel would not agree to allow Jordan to build
the ramp. Because the ramp will not touch the walls of the
Haram, Hadas said the Jordanian claim that it would violate
Article 9 of the peace treaty was baseless.
7. (C) Hadas noted a number of other irritants in the
relationship with Jordan, including Jordanian authorities
barring entry to religious Jews wanting to visit Aaron's tomb
and Jordanian confiscations of Jewish prayer articles from
Israeli tourists, who in turn complain to members of the
Knesset. In addition, Jordanian authorities were not acting
to block anti-normalization forces from preparing to publish
lists of names of Jordanians who do business or maintain
contacts with Israelis. Hadas warned that if the lists were
published, Jewish organizations around the world would likely
challenge Jordan's WTO membership application.
8. (C) Regarding King Abdallah's recent interview with the
French magazine L'Express, Hadas said he thought there was
some truth to Abdallah's complaint that Israeli leaders lack
a long-run strategy for achieving peace and stability, but he
said Abdallah was in no position to make such a complaint
given the incompetence and greed of the Jordanian governing
elite. Hadas added that Israel did not know any longer what
the King wants due to a lack of serious dialogue. (Note: We
understand that the GOI's dialogue with the Palace in Amman
is conducted either by PM Olmert directly or through Mossad
chief Dagan, with the MFA deliberately cut out by Olmert.)
Hadas did praise the ongoing cooperation of Jordan's security
services, including diligent protection of Israeli tourists,
but said it was an inadequate basis for a real bilateral
relationship.
********************************************* ********************
Visit Embassy Tel Aviv's Classified Website:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/telaviv
You can also access this site through the State Department's
Classified SIPRNET website.
********************************************* ********************
CUNNINGHAM
SIPDIS
E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/03/2018
TAGS: PREL KWBG KPAL KISL JO IS
SUBJECT: ISRAELI AND JORDANIAN VIEWS ON DETERIORATING
RELATIONS
REF: A. AMMAN 2483
B. AMMAN 2453
C. JERUSALEM 1616
D. TEL AVIV 1869
E. TEL AVIV 1834
F. TEL AVIV 1535
Classified By: DCM Luis Moreno for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d).
1. (C) Summary: PolOff met with Jordanian PolOff Asem
Ababneh (please protect) September 2 to discuss the rising
tensions between Jordan and Israel. Ababneh complained that
Israel is taking Jordan for granted and is no longer acting
in good faith on a range of issues, including the peace
process and Jerusalem. He said King Abdallah's August 28
interview with L'Express and FM Al-Bashir's August 21
convocation of P-5 Ambassadors over the Mughrabi Gate issue
(ref. B) were intended as wake-up calls to Israel. "We are
tired of being taken for granted by Israel." In a separate
meeting with PolCouns, Israeli MFA DDG for the Middle East
Yacov Hadas said he was aware of Jordan's frustrations and
sense of being ignored, but stressed that Israel also had
complaints about Jordanian behavior. He said the Israelis
were particularly irked by Jordan's confiscation of Jewish
religious articles from Israeli travelers, as well as several
recent comments by senior officials publicly accusing Israel
of desecrating the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount. End summary.
Jordanian Embassy: They're Taking us for Granted
-------------- ---
2. (C) Ababneh said that FM Bashir's decision to convoke P-5
Ambassadors over the Mughrabi Gate (ref. B) was taken after
years of mounting frustration over the issue. According to
Ababneh, Jordan has been asking since 2004, when the original
ramp collapsed, for GOI permission to finance and execute a
new access ramp for the Mughrabi Gate. Jordan views the ramp
as an integral part of the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount
itself, he said, and thus subject to Jordan's rights under
Article 9 of the 1994 peace treaty. He stressed that every
Jordanian request to the Israeli government to allow Jordan
to initiate the project was accompanied by an offer to allow
GOI experts to participate in the process. He said Israel
either rejected or ignored every Jordanian approach on the
issue and yet failed to provide any suggestions of its own.
Ababneh said Jordan was aware of but unable to accept the GOI
position that the access ramp was not subject to the 1994
treaty because it fell outside the mount's outer walls. The
access ramp belongs to the Haram, he said, much like the
front steps of a house belong to that house.
3. (C) Asked about the new GOI plans for the site, which
reportedly take a number of Jordanian concerns into account,
Ababneh agreed that the revised Israeli plans were better
than past iterations, but stressed that the issue was
political, not technical, and that no GOI-led effort would
ever be acceptable to Jordan. He said the Jordanians would
be happy to let the GOI participate in a Jordanian-led
project, but could not acquiesce to Israel having the lead.
He added that even the decision to participate in the UNESCO
process was difficult for Jordan, and was taken only after a
long and heated debate over the relative merits of ceding
Jordan's "prerogative" over the site to an outside party,
even UNESCO. In the end, he said, Jordan chose the UNESCO
track out of necessity, to break the impasse with Israel and
to ensure the preservation of the status quo, which Jordan
fears Israel is trying to uproot. At the same time, Jordan
expects to have the lead in implementing any UNESCO-developed
plan. Ababneh said Jordan thought it was making progress
after Israel agreed to participate in the UNESCO track.
However, the Jerusalem District Planning Committee's recent
decision to approve the revised Israeli plans, rather than
deferring to UNESCO, left Jordan feeling betrayed. He said
Jordan suspects Israel is using the UNESCO track as cover to
fend off international criticism, all the while proceeding
with its own unilateral plans.
4. (C) According to Ababneh, the Mughrabi Gate is only one
of several Jerusalem issues driving a wedge between Israel
and Jordan. Israel's ongoing excavations and the increasing
pace of settlement activity in and around the Old City are
driving Jordanian suspicions that Israel is rushing to
strengthen its hold on Jerusalem ahead of any talks with the
Palestinians over the city's status. He said Israel's
traditional cooperation with Jordan on Jerusalem issues was
also declining, and that Jordanian attempts at coordination
were being met by increasingly hostile Israeli responses.
"We coordinated very well in the past," he said, "but now it
is very difficult." By way of examples, he cited the
increasing difficulty of getting the Israeli police and Shin
Bet to allow any renovation work on the Haram
al-Sharif/Temple Mount, and the increasing harassment during
the past year of Jordanian officials and Muslim worshipers
seeking to enter the site for work or prayer. Ababneh said
that even the Jordanian Ambassador and other diplomats,
including himself, were harassed every time they tried to
enter the site. The police "yell at us and tell us the Haram
is Israeli property and we have no right to be there," he
said. Asked whether they approached the MFA for help with
such issues, Ababneh said yes, but that it had done little
good since MFA officials tell them to talk to the police. He
added that the Ambassador had tried on numerous occasions to
meet with Minister of Internal Security Avi Dichter to
discuss these problems, but that Dichter's office had refused
every request.
5. (C) Beyond the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount and Mughrabi
Gate issues, Jordan is also frustrated with Israel over the
lack of progress in the peace process. According to Ababneh,
Israel's failure to halt settlement expansion or make serious
efforts to ease restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank
had left Jordan questioning Israel's commitment to peace with
the Palestinians. He cited King Abdallah's August 28
interview with L'Express as an important development, since
the King's decision to publicly air Jordan's mounting
frustrations is a major new development, and should send a
signal to Israel that Jordan is not going to continue
watching quietly as its interests get trampled by Israel's
refusal to move forward with the Palestinians.
MFA: We Have Complaints Too
--------------
6. (C) Pol Couns discussed Israel's view of relations with
Jordan with MFA Deputy Director General for the Middle East
Yacov Hadas September 4. Regarding the Mughrabi Gate ramp,
Hadas complained that Jordan was inflaming the situation,
with Jordanian officials making public comments that Israel
was desecrating the Haram Al-Sharif. Hadas said that the
Israelis had assured the Jordanians that Jordan could
supervise the ramp construction and confirm that there were
no secret tunnels to undermine the holy mosques. Hadas
insisted that the revised ramp construction plans were in
accordance with UNESCO guidelines for protecting world
heritage sites and incorporated a number of features of the
alternative plan proposed by Jordan. In any event, Hadas
said that the approval process for the ramp was not yet
complete and no construction could take place due to an
appeal by an Arab member of Knesset. Hadas insisted,
however, that Israel would not agree to allow Jordan to build
the ramp. Because the ramp will not touch the walls of the
Haram, Hadas said the Jordanian claim that it would violate
Article 9 of the peace treaty was baseless.
7. (C) Hadas noted a number of other irritants in the
relationship with Jordan, including Jordanian authorities
barring entry to religious Jews wanting to visit Aaron's tomb
and Jordanian confiscations of Jewish prayer articles from
Israeli tourists, who in turn complain to members of the
Knesset. In addition, Jordanian authorities were not acting
to block anti-normalization forces from preparing to publish
lists of names of Jordanians who do business or maintain
contacts with Israelis. Hadas warned that if the lists were
published, Jewish organizations around the world would likely
challenge Jordan's WTO membership application.
8. (C) Regarding King Abdallah's recent interview with the
French magazine L'Express, Hadas said he thought there was
some truth to Abdallah's complaint that Israeli leaders lack
a long-run strategy for achieving peace and stability, but he
said Abdallah was in no position to make such a complaint
given the incompetence and greed of the Jordanian governing
elite. Hadas added that Israel did not know any longer what
the King wants due to a lack of serious dialogue. (Note: We
understand that the GOI's dialogue with the Palace in Amman
is conducted either by PM Olmert directly or through Mossad
chief Dagan, with the MFA deliberately cut out by Olmert.)
Hadas did praise the ongoing cooperation of Jordan's security
services, including diligent protection of Israeli tourists,
but said it was an inadequate basis for a real bilateral
relationship.
********************************************* ********************
Visit Embassy Tel Aviv's Classified Website:
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/nea/telaviv
You can also access this site through the State Department's
Classified SIPRNET website.
********************************************* ********************
CUNNINGHAM