Tragedy of the Hashemites

So embattled is the Hashemite kingdom that when yesterday's car bomb went off at the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad — a barbaric attack that killed at least 11 — it was hard to know whom to blame. Iraq's Governing Council blamed forces loyal to Saddam Hussein. Perhaps the Saddam loyalists were angry that Jordan allowed itself to be used as a staging ground, however covertly, for the American effort to liberate Iraq. On the other hand, the bombing might just as easily have been committed by an ardent opponent of Saddam, angry at Jordan for having profited for all these years from the smuggling trade with Saddam's regime and now for offering safe haven to Saddam's daughters.

The Palestinian Arabs are always suspects in an attack on the Hashemites, dating back to the Black September uprising by the Palestinians against the Hashemites in 1970. Jordan has a large Palestinian Arab population, but the Palestinians don't control the government. The Saudi regime and the Syrians have no love for the Jordanians, and neither do the Iranians. The Saudis, Syrians, and Iranians are all known to be active in Iraq, allied with Saddam loyalists against Americans.

The world will no doubt be quick to complain about America's failure to provide adequate security to the Jordanians in Baghdad. But that would be a spurious charge; it's not as if Americans are failing to risk their lives every day for the general security in Iraq. The Jordanians understand the difficulties; less than a year ago, on October 28, an American diplomat, Laurence Foley, was slain at Amman. At least the attack on the Jordanian embassy did not take place in Washington.

For all this there's a sense of tragedy that the Jordanians are now caught up in the killing. The regime of Abdullah II has sought to walk a tightrope, withdrawing its ambassador from the Jewish State but not breaking the peace treaty, presenting itself as a friend of America but participating in the Arab League alongside such anti-American state sponsors of terror as Libya and Syria. All this temporizing and appeasing, and what do they have to show for it? Had the Hashemites fully thrown in with Israel, Turkey, and America on the pro-Western side of the struggle for freedom and democracy against terrorism in the Middle East, they would at least share a piece of the moral high ground in this struggle.