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Menu There is no diplomatic solutionIsrael should declare three nos;
no to nuclear Iran, no to two-state solution, no to bi-national state
no to nuclear Iran, no to two-state solution, no to bi-national state
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
What you wrote below is well put and I believe on the mark.
Even the Israeli government who finds King Abdullah a pain in the arse, better than the unknown or chaos in Jordan and has NOT bought into Mudar Zahran.
@ Ted Belman: I had always meant “eight years ago” and “2011,” not “eleven years ago.” If I did write “eleven years ago,” it was a slip of the keyboard.
If Mudar’s predictions in 2011 were “clounded by wishful thinking,” it is possible they are still “clouded by wishful thinking.” However, Mudar’s hopes for regime change were reasonable in 2011 and remain reasonable today. Where he has erred in his judgment is in his assumption that America, England and Israel would act in their own interest. They haven’t. Their “experts” have misassessed Abdullah’s intentions and presumed loyalty to Western interests and the “peace process.” Mudar and others in the Jordanian opposition have also has tended to underestimate Abdullah’s remarkable political survival skills. He has exploited the fact that, while nearly everyone in Jordan wishes him to leave, there is no unity about who and what should replace him. Also, his Western ways, education and even appearance have enabled him to charm his Western backers.
@ Edgar G.: Thanks for the correction, Edgar. I used to be an English teacher, and shouldn’t make spelling mistakes. But sometimes I do.
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
AHEMMM……You don’t mean “immanent” which means something like a naturally inborn quality: .you mean imminent, which is almost immediately. At least from the sentence context I assume this, I’m not telling you, as you likely made a typo, but ….I can’t resist the rare opportunity…!!
Your first remark said 11 years ago and now you say in 2011 which is 8 years ago. Of course Mudar’s judgement was clouded with wishful thinking.. The Arab spring never reached Jordan.. Also Obama was protecting Jordan. So the Jordan Option became dormant. We brought it to life with Trump’s inauguration.
@ Ted Belman: Ted, if you listen to this interview all the way through, Mudar does predict, in the last minute and a half or so, that Abdullah will fall soon. He doesn’t give an exact date or use the word “immanent.” But he does suggest that once the Assad regime falls, Abdullah’s regime will be the next to fall. At the time, 2011, everyone expected that the fall of Assad was immanent. But then Obama screwed this up by inviting the Russians in. Mudar could not have anticipated that.
So Mudar apparently is denying this occurred (based on Ted’s comments).
@ Tessa Goldstein:
Trust me. I know exactly what went down because I was a party to it. There was an illegal leak of information that was misconstrued intentionally to defame Mudar.
@ Ted Belman:
That’s strange Ted. The Israeli Ministry of Interior told Jerusalem Post that he arrived at Ben Gurion Airport on September 12 and was deported the following day for “security reasons.”
Adam Dalgliesh Said:
I don’t think Mudar was predicting the imminent fall of Abdullah 11 years ago. He had no expectations during the Obama years.
There have been demonstrations demanding Abdullah’s abdication ever since he became king in 2003. The biggest were immediately after he took office in 2003. The ones in 2011 were also very large. But he has simply waited out the demonstrations. He arrests some demonstration organizers, but not too many. After a while, the demonstrators become exhausted and out of money, and the demonstrations end for six months to a year. Abdullah just waits them out. He is careful to keep repressive measures with “reasonable” limits, so as not to provoke a massive violent uprising. By this sly method, he keeps in power.
@ Ted Belman: If Mudar was predicting the imminent fall of Abdullah 11 years ago, and he is still in power, it doesn’t say much for his prophetic powers. The problem is that the U.S., Britain and Israel are all supporting Abdullah. Israel is still kissing his a__ despite all the abuse he showers on it. If these threee countries were to withdraw their support and financial aid to Abdullah, he would probably fall quickly–although the sly devil has been cultivating Iran as a possible “replacement” ally. But as long as he has the money to pay his soldiers and police, getting rid of him will be a formidable task, since most of his opponents, including Mudar, are non-violent.
@ Tessa Goldstein:
Mudar was not deported from Israel now was he detained, nor did he arrive.
I understand there was HASHimites warrant out for his arrest. By allowing him in Israel could have been forced into an unnecessary political situation.
Do we know why Israel’s Shin Bet deported Mudar Zahran after detaining him at Tel Aviv Airport? Just curious.
@ Adam Dalgliesh:
I arranged for that interview about 8 years ago. Today I posted my interview of Mudar done about 1.5 years ago. I am putting a lot of effort into getting him more exposure. I also plan to submit questions to him and post that also. If anyone can get him on MSM to discuss US ME policy that would be helpfull.
This video apparently dates from 2015 or earlier when Sun News Canada folded. I can not find it on the internet. A pro-Israel Christian site, Jerusalem Connection, lists it, but when you try to open it it says, “this video is private.”
Ted, I think you should provide us with the date of the interview, and a link to it if one still exists.
Recently, Mudar’s postings have mainly been in Arabic. Makes sense, since the people whom he hopes will rise up speak that language, not English.
The most recent video of a demonstration in Jordan that is on Mudar’s Facebook page is dated October 24, 2019. He had briefly posted a more recent one, dated November 20, but quickly removed it. Perhaps he disapproved of a threat on it by the demonstrators to kidnap tourists. Mudar has never advocated violence.
I think that Ted should post the most recent interview video of Mudar (on i24, I think) or better still, reinterview him himself and then post it here. The old stuff is no longer very relevant to the current situation in Jordan