Researcher Ze'ev Jabotinsky, grandson to the Revisionist movement founder of the same name, has urged Israel to respond resolutely to King Abdullah's plans to discontinue leasing agricultural regions of the Arava and Naharayim to Israel as set out in the appendix to the peace agreement.
In an article published in Israel Hayom, he calls on the Israeli government not to fear taking significant steps against King Abdullah's plans to stop leasing land to Israel.
"With all sympathy for the King's problems, he assumes he has Israel's cooperation with his regime in his pocket in any case, and therefore he can cause harm to its citizens (in this case, the Arava farmers who will be harmed) without a response from Israel.
"The Israeli government now has a choice between an attempt to appease the King at its own expense and a firm response that will only preserve the agreement in its written form."
As for the necessary response to the Jordanians, he writes:
"Jordan now receives much more than Israel agreed upon in the peace agreement. This was done out of a desire to strengthen the relationship, the hopes for which led Rabin to reach a time-limited lease agreement.
"With water, for example, the agreement stipulates Israel will supply Jordan with 50 million cubic meters of water per year, while in practice it supplies almost double each year. The difference could greatly reduce the Sea of Galilee's drying process and the decline of the national water level below all defined red lines. The decline of the level below a dangerous critical threshold can cause erupting saline springs, as only the water pressure corking their mouth prevents their emergence. As soon as the plugs are exhausted, they cannot be returned. The salinity of the Sea of Galilee will be a hydrological disaster for both us and Jordan.
"The government should initiate an examination of the water supply process beyond the post in the peace agreement with Jordan to prevent this hydrological disaster. There is no doubt that such a serious investigation will cool the Jordanian King's enthusiasm to adhere to what was said in the peace agreement alone, while abandoning the hopes on which it was based.
"The dominant paradigm in Israel today is that it is preferable for Hashemite Jordan to rule a dictatorial regime than a regime that represents the public living there. It was this paradigm, not to mention strategic conception, that caused Israel to intervene in Yasser Arafat's coup attempt in September 1970, which saved the life of the Hashemite rulers. It may also be time to check whether this is not a conception that endangers us in the changing Middle East."