What does stability mean for Jordanians?

The danger of the terrorist acts that recently struck our country lies not only in their deadly impact on civil peace and internal stability, which are assets we cannot give up. It also lies in the most dangerous historical moment the region is going through, with its regional security system collapsing and lines of confrontation and conflict opening on every front.

Take, for example, Jordan’s success in getting through the first decade of terrorism in the region, while entities in our Arab neighbourhood collapsed. That was a harsh test of our ability to endure and hold firm. Many believed that phase of instability had gone for good. But within a few years, a more dangerous and intense conflict erupted across the region. It remains open to the worst possibilities, as the Gaza war gave rise to wars on every front and axis, and revived conflicts that had gone quiet.

Jordan’s stability in the middle of a blazing region has long been the subject of outside questions, which carry a degree of surprise, bewilderment and sometimes even astonishment. That draws the curiosity and ambitions of many parties.

The lesson of the wars and conflicts that have broken out in our region is that countries which protect their internal stability and national unity have a chance to survive the “tsunami” of the Middle East.

Despite the harsh economic conditions, neighbourhood challenges and sensitivity of domestic files over the past five years, the Jordanian state has managed to get past them. It has seized every available opportunity to move forward and tackle its stubborn problems.

Terrorism is truly blind. Those who commit it do not grasp its consequences for the country’s future, or its impact on the state’s standing in a region where powers compete for every available space of influence and exploitation.

On the western front, where the Israeli occupation sits, doubts about Jordan’s ability to hold firm never stop. Israeli newspapers and research centres constantly publish reports warning of chaos in Jordan that they claim would endanger their security.

On the eastern front, there is a wide-ranging war that has already reached our country with its fire, and will spare nothing if it flares up again. There are also open threats of covert wars that set states alight from within and strike at their security and stability.

Iraq has become a source of threat because of the militias there, and after it comes Iran, which is ready to set the whole region ablaze if it is attacked by Israel and the United States again.

At the same time, alliances no longer carry meaning or value, either regionally or internationally.

In short, there are no longer any regional or international guarantees for Jordan’s stability.

This is not a unique situation in our political history. We have passed through similar phases before, when the “alternative homeland” project was an official programme for Zionist governments, when American administrations were hesitant about our right to remain a state, and when we faced a mostly hostile neighbourhood waiting for an opportunity to bring down the state.

But this phase is more dangerous. The world has never been as unstable or as uncertain as it is today. Jordan’s most important asset with friendly and allied countries is its reputation as a stable, secure and hospitable country, and, moreover, its legitimate ambition for modernisation, development and progress.

We have no greater resources or assets than these. That is why threats to our internal security mean opening our country to the ambitions of others, and exposing our stability to collapse, with all that follows, including interference by foreign powers and chaos.

For that reason, internal stability is the one thing we cannot afford to gamble with, whatever sacrifices it demands.