Last week, Queen Rania of Jordan—a country largely dependent on Israel for its national security—gave a sickening interview with the highly sympathetic Christiane Amanpour of CNN. Yet her opinions are not necessarily typical of thinking in Arab capitals. Ghaith al-Omari, writing shortly after Hamas’s attack on Israel, provides some crucial analysis:
Like the rest of the world, Arab governments were caught off guard by the unprecedented scale and brutality of Hamas’s attack. They shared Israel’s assumption that Hamas was not currently interested in a major escalation but was instead busy with the demands of governing Gaza and deterred by Israel’s carrots and sticks.
Consider Israel’s close neighbors, Egypt and Jordan, both of which reacted cautiously in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Egyptian officials refrained from condemning Hamas, called for de-escalation, and criticized Israeli policies toward the Palestinians. Jordan reacted similarly, expressing support for the Palestinian cause. . . .
In fact, Israel’s offensive against Gaza has already provoked unrest in both countries: an Egyptian policeman murdered two Israeli tourists and their Egyptian tour guide in Alexandria on October 8, a day after Hamas conducted its attack, and thousands of Jordanians demonstrated in Amman against Israel. As a result, both countries are on heightened alert. Egypt has explicitly stated that it will not allow large refugee flows from Gaza into its territory. And Jordan banned demonstrations near its border with Israel.
By contrast, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates condemned Hamas, with the Emirati government calling the group’s actions a “serious and grave escalation” and declaring that it was “appalled” by the attacks on civilians. These statements come at a time when diplomatic relations between Israel and the two countries are delicate.
Read more on Foreign Affairs: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/israel/hamas-has-fractured-arab-world