Two Jordanians On Trial For Plot to Attack Israeli Embassy

 

A total of eight suspects, including a Syrian fugitive, were charged with plotting to attack US soldiers and blow up Israel\’s embassy in the Hashemite kingdom, as well as trying to recruit people to join the Lebanese-based terror group Hezbollah.

 

The brothers, 53 and 37, were accused of preparing a car bomb and getting ready to ram it into the Israeli Embassy in Amman. They are being tried on charges of terrorism, using illegal explosives, illegal possession of weapons, and conspiracy. The car and the weapons were stored in the garage of one of the brothers, the indictment said.

 

Police said they caught the two before they were able to carry out their plot because of a “work accident,” with some of their explosives blowing up while in storage. The explosion prompted a police investigation, which resulted in the arrest of the brothers, as well as the other suspects.

 

The arrests in August came several weeks after the biggest anti-Israel demonstration ever in Amman, during the height of Operation Protective Edge. Demonstrators burned Israeli flags, chanted "Death to Israel" and urged on Hamas terror attacks in one of the biggest public outpourings of anger against Israel in the last few years. They were joined in smaller marches throughout Jordan.

 

Jordan, which holds a domestically unpopular peace treaty with Israel that it has recently threatened to revoke, is home to roughly two million "Palestinian refugees." Hamas has a large following among the “Palestinians” living in Jordan, who reportedly make up between 60-80% of the country\’s population.

 

That support has turned into action; a recently exposed coup attempt against the Palestinian Authority (PA) in Judea and Samaria, which was foiled by Israel, was planned by the Hamas headquarters in Turkey and involved the Hamas HQ in Jordan.