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Will Jordan Be Next to Fall?

(Tablet) Lee Smith - Should Jordan's King Abdullah II become the next Arab ruler to fall, it will mark another major setback for the U.S. in the region. For Israel it's significantly worse news. Jerusalem would lose its remaining strategic partner in the region - having already lost Turkey and Egypt - and face a possible nightmare on its longest border, exposing the country's center to attacks from the east that might include Sunni Jihadists or Iranian-trained Iraqi agents. In neighboring Syria, Assad's fall at the hands of Islamist rebels could put wind in the sails of Jordan's own Muslim Brotherhood party, the Islamic Action Front. At protests last week in Amman organized by the Islamic Action Front, "the turnout was much larger than the 8,000 that the government claims attended," said Hassan Barari, a political analyst at Jordan University. "It was...35,000-40,000." The reality is that there's little the U.S. can do at this point to protect one of its most steadfast allies in the region. The writer is a fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
2012-10-12 00:00:00
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