Jordan: A Brighter Spot In Israeli Middle East Relations… But Only God Knows How Long It Will Last

Zechariah 12 addresses the eschatological siege of Jerusalem, in which all surrounding peoples are drawn into hostility against the city. The original near horizon anticipated the pressure of surrounding nations on post-exilic Judah; the far horizon stretches to the Day of the Lord when the nations converge.

The plain sense of the text is that Israel's neighbors will not ultimately be neutralized allies — they will be instruments of pressure. The secret nature of Jordan's cooperation, conducted against the grain of fierce Arab public opinion, is not stability; it is the thinly veiled hostility the text describes dressed in diplomatic clothes.

Jordan's public cannot be brought to open alliance with Israel; cooperation must remain hidden to survive. This is precisely the 'cup of staggering' dynamic — surrounding peoples pressured toward hostility even when individual leaders resist it.

The fragility of Jordan's friendship, contingent on one king's lifespan, confirms rather than contradicts the prophetic picture: Israel stands without secure human alliance among the nations, exactly as Zechariah foretold.

The psalmist, writing within Israel's covenantal framework, draws a sharp contrast between refuge found in the Lord and the unreliability of human alliances — including alliances with princes and rulers. The verse addresses the recurring pattern of Israel seeking security in foreign powers rather than in God.

The wisdom here is not pacifism or political naivety; it is the sober observation that any security architecture built on a prince's goodwill is as mortal as the prince himself.

Israel's Jordanian relationship survives only as long as King Abdullah reigns and chooses cooperation. When that reign ends, the partnership may end with it — a textbook illustration of trusting in princes.

The article itself names this fragility explicitly, which invites the reader to ask the deeper question the psalm raises: where does Israel's — and our own — ultimate refuge lie?

Ezekiel 38 describes a future coalition attack against Israel at a time when Israel appears to dwell in relative security and without reliable defensive alliances strong enough to deter the invasion. Notably, no nation rushes to Israel's military defense when the Gog coalition strikes — only a divine response intervenes.

The absence of committed allied protection is a precondition Ezekiel's text takes for granted. The fragility of Jordan's partnership — and the brittleness of all Arab normalization — contributes to the geopolitical condition the passage presupposes.

That Israel's regional relationships remain hidden, conditional, and subject to collapse at any leadership change means that when the prophesied crisis of Ezekiel 38 arrives, the isolation will be genuine rather than surprising.

The article does not describe Ezekiel 38 in motion — but it documents the slow erosion of the alliance architecture that would otherwise stand between Israel and that prophesied aloneness.