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Displeased with Palestinians, Arab States Chart New Jerusalem Policy
(Israel Hayom) Daniel Siryoti - Jordan, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia are displeased with the way the Palestinian Authority has reacted to U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit announced over the weekend that he would head a new committee, comprising the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the PA, to devise a new policy on Jerusalem. "The decision to establish this committee was, in effect, imposed on the Palestinian Authority by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan in a move that was backed by the Arab League," a senior Jordanian official said. "It effectively puts the Arab League in charge of the policy on Jerusalem, taking it away from the Palestinians. The Palestinians' efforts to sway public opinion have been a complete failure, and as a result...Abbas has created a rift between us [the Arab world] and Trump. We are once again left with the demagogic, hollow and inflammatory rhetoric of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan." Despite the lip service and the appearance of consensus on Jerusalem in the form of harsh condemnations, the Arab states have avoided taking concrete measures to counter the American declaration. Senior Arab officials have gone as far as to urge Abbas to scale back his rhetoric aimed at the international community. A senior Jordanian official said, "We are very worried that the Palestinians' actions over Jerusalem, their efforts to shun the U.S. from the peace process, and their insistence on international intervention are a double-edged sword that...could bring about the exact opposite of the intended result." "Many more countries could do what the U.S. has done after seeing that the region has not been destabilized and only a few thousand protesters have taken to the streets."