PHOTO: Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu and Jordan’s King Abdullah II, July 2010

LATEST: Online Threats to Jewish Right-Wing Activists?

A Kuwaiti newspaper, used by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office to leak stories, has said that Netanyahu secretly met Jordan’s King Abdullah II in Amman on Saturday.

Al-Jarida said the leaders to discuss the escalation in violence in East Jerusalem and tensions over the Temple Mount and al-Aqsa Mosque. A Jordanian newspaper is also carrying the report.

Neither the Israeli or Jordanian side officially confirmed the authenticity of the report. Some of Al-Jarida’s claims have proven true in the past, while others have been disinformation.

The newspaper claimed Netanyahu and the King agreed to increase coordination between the Israeli Government and the Jordanian Waqf, which manages the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The Israeli Prime Minister supposedly promised to prevent Jews from ascending the Temple Mount in the near future and to define new regulations for tourists’ entry to the site, which is holy to both Jews and Muslims.

With protests and clashes rising in Jerusalem over the past month, Israeli security forces have closed off the al-Aqsa Mosque area to Muslims except for women, children, and men over 40 with Israeli identity cards.

Last Thursday, the Israeli forces closed off Temple Mount to Jews for the first time since 2000 to prevent confrontations. Jewish activists had pledged to march on the Mount to protest the shooting of right-wing Rabbi Yehuda Glick.

Al-Jarida said Netanyahu’s statement urging Israeli legislators to cool their rhetoric on Jerusalem was released Saturday night as a direct result of the meeting with the king.

The newspaper said King Abdullah updated Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas, which encouraged Abbas to publish a statement praising Israeli efforts to calm the situation.

At the opening of a Parliamentary session on Sunday, King Abdullah linked Jordan’s national security with that of the Arab world and vowed that the Jordanian Armed Forces would defend all causes in the region.

King Abdullah specifically pledged to protect Jerusalem and continue pushing for Palestinian statehood:

The Palestinian cause remains our principal cause and is a higher national interest. Jerusalem, whose soil is watered by the blood and sacrifices of our martyrs, is a responsibility that lies in the depth of our conscience. Jordan will continue to confront, through all available means, Israel’s unilateral policies and measures in Jerusalem and preserve its Muslim and Christian holy sites, until peace is restored to the land of peace.


Online Threats to Jewish Right-Wing Activists?

Amid escalating violence in Jerusalem and last week’s assassination attempt on Rabbi Yehuda Glick, 14 other right-wing Jewish activists have reportedly been threatened by Palestinians via social media.

A 22-year old Palestinian has been arrested in Jerusalem on suspicion of sending a death threat to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu via an online form submitted to his office.

One Israeli official’s home was reportedly attacked on Sunday night. A fragmentation grenade was thrown at the municipal inspector’s house in Kiryat Ata, near Haifa in northern Israel.

The grenade caused minor damages to the house, but there were no injuries.

In East Jerusalem, Israeli security forces reportedly discovered hundreds of fireworks and munitions in the predominantly-Arab Silwan neighborhood, where tension has been raised by the rehousing of Israeli Jews.

The Jerusalem Light Rail in Beit Hanina was targeted by Palestinian stone throwers on Monday morning.