Al Jazeera: Kushner's diplomatic tour ends quietly in Belgium

Mike Stephens, a researcher at the UK-based Royal United Services Institute, told Al Jazeera: "The Palestinians are effectively broke, but that's probably one of the reasons why they won't negotiate. They won't negotiate under this sort of duress. They see it as being strong-armed into accepting an agreement that's not in their interests."

Rejection by the Palestinians makes it very difficult for King Abdullah II of Jordan and, to a lesser extent, other Arab leaders, to support Kushner's plans. [...]

Kotef added that the deal, which looks unlikely to grant Palestinians any of their key demands, could also win support among the Israeli centre and some of the left. [...]

"It's not like the Arab states are that invested in the Palestinian cause now," he said. On the other hand, Stephens pointed out that the global Muslim community will not thank any leader who legitimises Israel's control of Jerusalem.

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Al Jazeera: How Saudi tried to bully Jordan and failed

Unfortunately for Riyadh, most of its actions have failed to achieve their goals, and in almost all cases they have backfired. These include the Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates (UAE)-led calamitous war in Yemen, the failed siege of Qatar, the unravelling of Saudi-backed rebels in Syria, and the embarrassing forced detention and "resignation" of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri. [...]

The presumed tripartite Saudi message was this: Amman and Ramallah should lighten up their criticisms of Donald Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital; not join the Organization of Islamic Cooperation emergency summit that convened in Turkey last week; and, support Saudi Arabia's desire to promote an expected Israel-Palestine "peace plan" that is being developed by the White House. [...]

Jordan and Palestine - like Qatar, Yemen, Syria, and Lebanon before them - instantly rejected Riyadh's wishes, defied its threats and intimidation, and pursued policies that more closely aligned with the sentiments and interests of their own people. King Abdullah and President Abbas attended the summit in Turkey, strongly denounced the US move on Jerusalem, and for good measure also placed themselves next to Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in the ceremonial summit photo.

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Al Jazeera: Jordan's King Abdullah in rare visit to Palestine

Jordan's King Abdullah II has begun a rare visit to the occupied West Bank to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, amid shared tensions with Israel over the al-Aqsa Mosque compound. [...]

The king's West Bank visit, his first in five years, comes two weeks since a surge in violence in Jerusalem after Israel installed metal detectors at entrances to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound - Islam's third holiest site.

Jordan serves as the custodian of the site, which houses the al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine. The western wall of the compound is sacred to Jews. [...]

"They say there is a habitual encroachment by Israeli forces on the Al-Aqsa compound. And they want to work closer together to deal with future crises, which they say are inevitable because of the way Israel is dealing with the issue.

"Moving forward, they are going to form a committee. They also said they will better coordinate and come up with a better plan when it comes to communications over the Al-Aqsa compound."

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