Why Regional Dynamics Open the Door for Jordan-Israel Cooperation

Jun 13, 2017
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About the Authors
Haisam Hassanein

Haisam Hassanein was an Associate Fellow at The Washington Institute. Previously, he was the Institute's 2016-2017 Glazer Fellow, in which he focused on economic relations between Israel and Arab states. He has published in several media outlets, including the Wall Street Journal, Foreign Affairs

Articles & Testimony

Pressing circumstances have pushed the Jordanian business community to set aside ideological objections and become more open to major projects with Israel.

Jordan finds itself in a precarious strategic position. The Hashemite Kingdom is located at the heart of a degenerating region and has absorbed millions of refugees despite a floundering economy. This state of affairs has led Jordan to increase economic cooperation with Israel, as it attempts to offset some of these challenges. However, 23 years after Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel, the Jordanian public is still not completely comfortable with increasing economic cooperation with its western neighbor. The value of increased economic cooperation between Jordan and Israel should be a fairly easy argument to make to the public, as Israel has a strong economy that could help lift Jordan out of its current economic crisis and help improve the kingdom's standard of living. In fact, Jordanian-Israeli economic cooperation has already borne fruit...

Read the full article on the Cipher Brief website.

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