President Shimon Peres made a special apology on Monday for the death of a Jordanian judge last week even though the IDF has not yet changed its original preliminary conclusion that he assaulted an IDF soldier and tried to grab his rifle.
The incident has fanned the anti-Israeli flames in the monarchy. Since it was discovered that the suspect was not your ordinary terrorist suspect but was a judge, the Netanyahu government has been falling over itself to make amends.
The worst possible scenario is that the soldiers made a mistake and that the military’s first conclusions were wrong, but so far, there has been nothing to indicate otherwise.
Peres, said, “I wish to express my deepest condolences to the people of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan for the death of Judge Raed Zeiter at the King Hussein Bridge on March 10th. As the President of the State of Israel I would like to express compassion to the bereaved family, I share in their grief.
“Earlier today I conducted an important conversation with His Majesty King Abdullah II and expressed our deep regret to him.”
Of course, Peres brought up his peace mantra again – no day in the life of President Peres can pass without it. “We discussed the importance of achieving peace between Israel and the Palestinians based on two states for two peoples,” President Peres said. “We further discussed the urgent need to bring an end to the bloodshed in the Middle East and advance a future of stability and prosperity for all the people of our region.”
He praised King Abdullah II as “a leader of vision” and that “under his leadership Jordan plays a key role in the search for peace and stability in the Middle East. Israel agreed to the Jordanian request to establish a joint Israeli-Jordanian team to complete the investigation and their work has begun.”