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Israeli Embassy In Jordan Evacuates Families Of Staff
CAIRO (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Israel completed evacuating families of employees in the Israeli embassy in Amman, Jordan, and reduced its embassy staff there on Thursday after the shooting of an Israeli diplomat on Tuesday.
The Israeli English-language daily newspaper, The Jerusalem Post, reported on Thursday that Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami has decided to recall to Israel the families of 15 embassy employees as an immediate response to the shooting.
Another daily newspaper, Ha'aretz, said that a reduced staff, for the first time in six years, now mans the Israeli embassy.
However, the Jewish state stopped short from raising tensions with Jordan with whom it has signed a peace treaty in 1994. Jordan and Egypt are the two only Arab countries with formal peace treaties with Israel.
"There is full cooperation with the Jordanians, and real and sincere concern on their part," Ben-Ami told Israel Radio on Thursday.
Israeli sources told Ha'artez they were expecting the new chief of Jordanian intelligence, Saad Hayir, to take part in the investigation and "apprehend those responsible."
Shlomo Ratsbai, an Israeli Embassy employee, was shot and his car caught on fire, causing slight injury to his leg. Ratsbai underwent surgery in Amman's Heart Center Hospital. Medical sources say he is in a satisfactory condition and has been transferred to Israel.
Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdel Ilah Al-Khatib promised to strict security measures to curb such attacks and in order to find the culprits of the attack.
Observers in Amman speculate that such attacks outside Israel and the Occupied Territories, in countries like Jordan, are caused by international Arab media sources inflaming sentiments against the Israelis.
Israeli ambassador in Jordan, David Dadon, echoed complaints in Israel that Arab satellite stations were to blame for inciting public anger against Israel.
"In the last two months the street has related, and I imagine this is no different from the Arab street in general, at best coolly and more commonly in a hostile way," Dadon told news agencies, mentioning Arab satellite broadcasts as a cause of incitement.
"We feel it in glimpses, in small incidents; in the refusal of a barber to cut the hair of an Israeli envoy, in the refusal of a supermarket to receive an Israeli customer and such things everyday," he told Israel's Channel One television.
The Jerusalem Post quoted an Israel diplomat as blaming Jordanian media for what happened to the Israeli embassy workers.
"Anti-Israel sentiment is being fed by the Jordanian media, which are providing daily pictures of 'Israeli atrocities' against Palestinians," the diplomat was reported as saying.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak described the attack as a "red light" but said it would not destroy Amman's relations with Israel.
This incident has intensified Arab indignation and anti-Israeli sentiments that spread after Israel started an all-out crackdown on Palestinians protesting Israeli occupation of holy Muslim sites. Israel, in its attempts to quell the protestors, has used live ammunition, helicopters, bombs and rockets, against mostly unarmed civilians.
A previously unknown group, calling itself The Jordanian Islamic Resistance Movement for Holy Struggle, claimed responsibility for the two separate attacks against Israelis in Amman.
"We warn the Zionist entity to leave our dear Jordan and we warn the Jordanian government...to expel all Zionists from our country," said the group in an Arabic statement sent to news agencies.
Anti-Israeli feelings have particularly intensified in Jordan since the beginning of the Intifada after a provocative visit by Likud leader Ariel Sharon to the holy site of al-Aqsa Mosque.
Jordan's population contains mostly Palestinians, and regular Jordanians have expressed dismay at their government's official 1994 peace treaty with a state that still occupies Arab land.
Jordan's Islamists and independents have recently protested in the streets of Amman against Israeli violence, urging the expulsion of the Israeli ambassador and the shutting down of the embassy.
Palestinian-Israeli violence has entered its third month, claiming the lives of almost 300 Palestinians, according to Palestinians sources, while the U.N. estimates that around 260 were Palestinians and the rest Israelis.
As a protest against the Israel's viciousness in the occupied territories, Jordan has suspended the procedures of appointing a new ambassador to the Jewish state after the withdrawal of the previous one.
The shootings of Israeli embassy staff workers has signaled to both Arabs and Israelis that if the violence in the occupied Palestinian territories is not controlled, it could spill over to Israel's neighbors and, possibly, other parts of the world.
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