Paper sees improved Jordan-Hamas ties as "clever political realism"

Hamas is a legitimate resistance organization and not a terrorist organization. This is the opinion, which the majority of Jordanians hold of the movement. But how has Jordanian public opinion changed towards Hamas throughout the past several years and how has the relationship between the Jordanian state and the movement changed and what are the affects of all that on public opinion?

The percentage of Jordanians, who knew Hamas as a legitimate resistance organization in 2004 was about 87 per cent. This percentage dropped to a low level in June 2008 reaching 59 per cent. And, in the latest survey held during the period 12-14 August 2008, the percentage of those who knew Hamas as a legitimate resistance organization went up to 71 per cent. What is the significance of these changes?

The drop in the percentage of those who knew Hamas as a legitimate resistance organization to 59 per cent in June was the result of an accumulation of several factors that affected Hamas Movement's image before the Jordanian pubic. One of these factors was the failure of the movement to present a good governance model due to its siege by Israel and the world despite its triumph in free and honest elections. Thus, it was not able to reduce the sufferings of the Palestinian people; in other words, it did not succeed in governing due to several reasons, including intrinsic reasons that concern the movement itself. Moreover the movement's involvement in an armed conflict with Fatah leading to its control of Gaza led to an ugly siege of the strip and its population.

Official Jordanian relations with Hamas Movement were not at their best, especially in the last three years. The strong influence of these factors on Jordanian public opinion differ according to the time, the prevalent regional conditions and their effects on the balance of interests and stands.

Only one of these factors changed, which is the improvement in the relations between Jordan and Hamas Movement. This was perhaps the main reason for the rise in the percentage of those who say that Hamas is a legitimate resistance organization from 59 to 71 per cent. But there are other associated reasons, such as that the Palestinian leadership's wager on the negotiations with Israel did away with the remaining credibility in the leaderships of Fatah Movement and the Palestinian [National] Authority, which kept predicting an imminent breakthrough in the peace talks and the achievement of a solution, which turned out not to be the case. In this atmosphere, the Fatah moderate plan lost in favour of the Hamas Movement discourse.

Meanwhile, the confrontation axis won several rounds, including another Hezbollah political victory over Israel by the release of the prisoners, which led partially to raising the percentage of those who say that it is a legitimate resistance organization from 54 per cent in June to 66 per cent in August 2008.

Jordan enjoys a strong relationship with the United States, which considers Hamas a terrorist organization. It also has a peace treaty with Israel, Hamas Movement's enemy number one. Moreover, it opens its lines to Hamas and retains them with Fatah. It also opens up to Iraq without harming its other Arab and regional relations. This is the clever political realism that calls for positive engagements with others who are influential in the region and harmonizing with Jordanian public opinion to guarantee the interests of Jordan and its good people.

Source: Al-Ra'y, Amman, in Arabic 18 Aug 08