British journalist David Hirst, editor-in-chief of the Middle East Eye website, said that the Iranian attack on the Israeli occupation has for the first time revealed “an Arab army fighting on Israel’s side”.
Hearst wrote in an article in Middle East Eye magazine: “The dumbest thing Israeli security sources did on Sunday was to publicly boast about the cooperation they received from the Jordanian Air Force, which helped them shoot down drones and cruise missiles.”
Israeli sources boasted that missiles bound for Jerusalem were intercepted on the Jordanian side of the Jordan Valley, while others were intercepted near the Syrian border.
Hirst continued: “The message Israel wants to send is that despite the apparent issue, Israel has allies in the region who are ready to defend it.”
Hirst commented: “But this is a fool’s game if Israel wants to protect the weak Jordanian monarchy and fight public opinion that wants to attack the border.”
He explained: “Jordan may have been hypocritical in the past, and King Hussein passed intelligence information to his cigar-smoking friend, the late former Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.”
He continued: “But this is the first time I can remember that the Jordanian army, which since its liberation from the Ottoman Empire has had its original name as the ‘Arab Army’, has actually participated in the struggle to protect Israel’s borders, and this is what has happened. it is a big mistake.”
Referring to the discrepancy between popular and official positions, Hirst said: “While Jordanian residents, whether Palestinians or Jordanians in the East Bank, cheered for these missiles and hoped they would reach their target, the Jordanian army shot them down in the name of Israel.”
Israel only engages with Arab leaders who go against the will of their people and impose their corrupt rule on them, Hirst said. Jordan’s move on Saturday may bring success for Israel in the short term, but in the long term it will cause problems for Israel in the long run,” Hirst said.
Hirst concluded that the Israeli occupation can celebrate the fact that it has real allies, “but by doing so it fatally undermines the legitimacy of its friends.”
It is noteworthy that Jordan publicly participated in repelling the first attacks of its kind by Iran against the Israeli occupation.