Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with King Abdullah II at the Royal Palace in Amman on Tuesday, ahead of the Muslim month of Ramadan and as security tensions in Israel are high.
The meeting “focused on regional and security challenges,” Gantz’s office stated. The meeting was instead of the summit that Gantz had planned to hold with Abdullah and PLO head Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah this week. PM Naftali Bennett forced Gantz to cancel that meeting.
Gantz presented the king with the measures that Israel is planning to take to “enable freedom of prayer in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria” during Ramadan. He also discussed the importance of security coordination during this period, as well as additional civilian measures that will benefit Arabs in Judea and Samaria, and in Gaza, and which will be implemented in accordance with Israel’s security interests.
Gantz further “emphasized the importance of maintaining regional peace and stability and the need to fight terrorism in all its forms, specifically to act forcefully against ISIS, which has coordinated the recent attacks in Israel.”
Two terror attacks in Israel in the past week carried out by ISIS-sympathizers in Be’er Sheva and Hadera claimed the lives of six Israelis and injured about 20.
Finally, Gantz thanked King Abdullah for “his leadership and positive influence in the region, and for his willingness to deepen peaceful relations and to expand cooperation between the Kingdom of Jordan and Israel in all areas.”
This meeting was coordinated with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett.
Gantz traveled to Amman in January for a meeting hosted by King Abdullah which “focused on security and policy topics.”
This meeting comes about a week after Israeli Minister of Public Security Omer Barlev met secretly in Jordan with Foreign Minister Ayman a-Safdi with attention turned to the fears of security escalation in the month of Ramadan, the latest in a series of summits between senior Israeli and Jordanian officials.
Israel’s President Isaac Herzog met secretly with King Abdullah at the King’s palace in September.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett secretly met with King Abdullah in Jordan shortly after Bennett took office in June.
Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid met with his Jordanian counterpart, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman a-Safdi in Jordan in July and the two reached agreements on trade and water issues, apparently the official finalization of the agreements reached between Bennett and King Abdullah.
Security tensions in Israel are high, after a series of terror attacks in the Jerusalem area and the murder of four Israelis in Be’er Sheva and another two in Hadera by Islamist terrorists, and ahead of the Muslim month of Ramadan, which usually spells an uptick in Muslim violence and acts of terrorism in Israel.
The country’s security establishment is bracing for violence, especially as Ramadan coincides with Passover, and following the first anniversary of Operation Guardian of the Walls in May 2021, which was launched by the IDF following a Hamas rocket attack on Jerusalem that began at the height of the Month of Ramadan.
