I was and still am a follower of having good, even close, bilateral relations with the Kingdom of Jordan.
The reasons for this are varied, and all belong to the area of the highest interest of the two countries.
Whatever this true desire is to maintain a close relationship with the kingdom, there are red lines that must not be crossed.
The feeling is that Jordan has crossed them.
The king is talking about an Israeli plot to divide the Temple Mount between Jews and Arabs.
Well - this is a lie.
Israel has officially announced that there is no such intention at all.
The king, indirectly, gave the Waqf a hand in sending an unofficial paper to the United States, in which he sought to change the existing status and hand over to the Waqf the management of all matters, including security, on the Temple Mount. Israel is out.
The recent attack on the Israeli Prime Minister, Bashar al-Khassauna, in Israel before members of parliament was offensive, false and insulting.
His use of extreme terminology is intolerable.
Wanting to express support for the Palestinian rioters, the Jordanian prime minister said that the Jews were defiling ("Tadnis" - "filth" in Arabic) the Temple Mount (al-Aqsa).
This is a sharp, out-of-place terminology.
Amman also summoned the Israeli representative for a reprimand call.
The king tried to mobilize the Arab world - the United Arab Emirates and Egypt - against Israel.
The kingdom seems to be going all over the box office, and it should be awakened from its dream.
Israel must without delay invite the Jordanian ambassador to the Foreign Ministry, for a reprimand call, in which he will be asked to clarify to his superiors that Israel is a sovereign and independent state in charge of public order and peace, including on the Temple Mount.
Jordan, for its part, is tasked with helping achieve this goal, as promised by it to Israeli officials who visited the king when Ganz was there, on the eve of the last Ramadan holiday, and also when the Americans sought to calm the winds.
In a conversation with the ambassador, Israel should say, for its part, that it rejects the words of the Jordanian prime minister in full, and that it maintains and will continue to maintain the status quo.
Its difficulties are known from the house of King Abdullah II, but it is impossible to wave it whenever the Jordanian public takes to the streets and demonstrates against it.
Israel will not be the scapegoat to overcome these difficulties.
Abdullah's father, the late King Hussein, who also encountered similar difficulties in his kingdom, knew how to deal with this matter with rare political wisdom.
He understood that close relations with Israel were an asset and a supreme interest of the kingdom.
In the past year, there has been a real effort on the part of Israel to rebuild relations with Amman, which have deteriorated mainly due to the Palestinian riots on the Temple Mount and the helplessness shown by Jordan.
It seems to be working.
But Amman's recent conduct works against this trend of improvement.
The people of Israel also have feelings and demands.
If a poll is conducted about the feelings of the Israeli public regarding Jordan's recent conduct, I'm not sure the king will be pleased with the results, and it is to be assumed that he sees importance in these relations.
It is easy to go to extremes, so the king must stop the deterioration.
But, if it turns out that this is the kingdom's attitude towards the Palestinians, and so are the public statements of support for them ("I congratulate every Palestinian who throws a stone at an Israeli on the Temple Mount," for example), heard from a key figure as prime minister. She is Palestine.
To the delight of us all, this is not Israel's official position.
The two countries now need to stop the deterioration with all their might, and continue the process of recovering relations between them.
The fear is that the king is trying to open a box that was closed.
Let's just hope it doesn't turn out to be a Pandora's box.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
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