In Jordan, It Is Forbidden To Say "Israel"

Recently, I had the privilege of having breakfast with a missionary who went for a  short trip to Jordan.

This is what I heard from him concerning Israel, neighbor of Jordan.

No one is allowed to pronounce the proper noun, “Israel.” Since my friend had some contacts in Israel, he had some things to tell his Arab contacts in Jordan. So in conversation, he replaced the name “Israel” with “the people over the border.”

NOTE: Most of his conversations were with the leaders of the Christian congregation in Jordan. There, too, the ban applied.

MAPS including Israel—Also banned! In Jordan, as with other places in the Middle East, Israel is not on their maps.

They’re playing “Let’s Pretend.”

If they could, it seems like Jordan, like ancient Moab, would seek to have a curse placed on Israel.

​QUESTION: Don’t Jordan and Israel have a peace treaty in effect?

ANSWER: Yes…signed in 1994. In Washington D. C. there gathered together President Clinton, King Hussein and Prime Minister Rabin of Israel where they signed the “Washington Declaration.” That piece of paper proclaimed that “the state of belligerency between Israel and Jordan has been terminated” and included other nice-sounding words.

Yet…King Hussein continued, in agreement with his people, to make false charges against Israel, accusing the Israelis of killing Arab children en masse. And NOTE this: the Jordan street got no news of the peace agreement through Israeli television, only from Al-Jazeera.

A Recent Word from Jordan
Jordanian Academic Dr. Ahmad Shahrouri, professor at Al-Zaytoonah University of Jordan, spelled out his thinking about the Jewish people—Jordan’s neighbors.

In a television address on July 14, 2019, he said that all the land of Palestine belongs to the Palestinians, insisting that the Muslim conflict with the Jews is an existential conflict. He described the Palestinians as that land’s eternal people who have lived there for 7,000 years. He says that just because the Jews passed through that land for what he says was just a 70-year period in ancient history, it  gives them no rights whatever to the land. 
This is a professor at the University of Jordan, state-supported, the oldest, largest and most prestigious university in Jordan.

Much could be said about the privileges that Palestinians enjoy in Israel, but this one is key: the Arabic language is a required course in all Israeli schools.  Many  more Palestinian privileges are enumerated in my book: Israel the Chosen.

Dr. Shahrouri blasted the present State of Israel and all Jews in that land by this statement: “It is either us or the Jews in Palestine. When Jews say Jerusalem is theirs, I want to smash their heads.” (MEMRI, July 14, 2019)
To the Muslims of the Middle East, Israel is a cancer in the body of the Arab nation. You see, geographically, Israel is right there in the middle of Muhammed’s body.  
The Rejection is so complete that one must not and cannot speak that hated  particular proper noun-- I S R A E L .

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The Desired Curse 

In the Old Testament story of the ancient Israelites trudging towards the Promised Land (Numbers 22-24), the king of Moab (just east of the Dead Sea) refused permission for the Israelites to use the Moabite road north. Instead, he found a prophet who he hoped would pronounce a curse on the Israelites. The prophet he found was a non-Israelite whom the king was certain would comply—Balaam.
But though Balaam wanted to please the king of Moab, he found he could not. He couldn’t, because the Lord God of Israel, God Almighty, so impressed that old prophet Balaam, and the sight of Israel in such a beautiful and orderly encampment--also so impressive, that it made a curse impossible.
So instead, we have Balaam’s poetically beautiful BLESSING upon Israel which is recorded in Numbers Chapter 24. (The whole story is in Numbers 22-24)  
                                                                The oracle of Baalam, the son of Beor,
                                                         The oracle of the man whose eye is opened,
                                                      The oracle of him who hears the words of God,
                                                             Who see the vision of the Almighty….
                                                                   How lovely are your tents, O Jacob,
                                                                     Your encampments, O Israel!
                                                                Like palm groves that stretch afar,
                                                                      Like gardens beside a river,
                                                              Like aloes that the Lord has planted,
                                                              Like cedar trees beside the waters…
                                                              He crouched, he laid down like a lion
                                                         And like a lioness, who will rouse him up?
                                                                   Blessed are those who bless you,
                                                               And cursed are those who curse you.
                                                                             (Numbers 24:4-9)

And so, the leaders of Jordan would do well to come to terms with the chosen people of the Lord: your curses will not work; your threats are meaningless; and it would be well with you if you would accept those whom God is blessing (though your religion sees the Jews as descendents of pigs and monkeys. 

NOTE: The present-day nation of Jordan includes, in its territory, the ancient territory of Moab where the plan to curse Israel was originally hatched. Israel’s history is Israel’s present! 
 
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