Unfortunately for Jordan’s King Abdullah, month-old events on the ground disprove the preface of his just-released autobiography.
Amazingly enough, the king still blames the region’s problems on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. From The Media Line:
“Resolving this conflict would deprive the organizations of their appeal,” Abdullah writes in the preface. It would even go far in addressing the region’s other problems of political reform and economic development. “Think of a world where the managerial expertise of the Israelis, the professionalism of the Jordanians, Lebanese entrepreneurship and the education of the Palestinians could be combined effectively.”
Trouble is, the Middle East is aflame. With Jordan, too, shaken by protests that prompted Abdullah to dismiss his prime minister, there is no evident connection to the smoldering Israeli-Palestinian conflict.