Trump faces a confrontation with Jordan about the Gaza Plan

Donald Trump is expected to face the fierce resistance of King Abdullah de Jordan at the White House today, at his first meeting since the president of the United States proposed to transfer the population of Gaza to Jordan.

Jordan, a key ally of the United States, has been stepping on a tightrope between its military and diplomatic ties, and popular support for the Palestinians at home.

Those failures, already tested by the Gaza War, are being pushed to the breakdown by Trump’s plans for Gaza’s peace.

He has expanded to his demand for Gazanes to be transferred to Jordan and Egypt, telling a Fox News presenter who would not be entitled to return home, a vision that, if applied, infringed international law.

On Monday he said he could retain the aid to Jordan and Egypt if they did not go to the Palestinian refugees.

Some of the most fierce opponents of moving Jordan to Jordan are the Gazans who moved here before.

Some 45,000 people live crowded in the Gaza camp, near the northern city of Jordan de Jerash, one of several fields of Palestinian refugees here.

Corrugated iron sheets hang on the narrow doors of stores, and children are attributed on donkeys between market stalls.

All families here track their roots back to Gaza: to Jabalia, Rafah, Beit Hanoun. Most left after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, seeking temporary refuge. Generations later, they are still here.

“Donald Trump is an arrogant narcissistic,” says Maher Azazi, 60. “It has a Middle Ages mentality, the mentality of a merchant.”

Maher left Jabralia as a small child. Some of his family are still there, now collecting the rubble of his home for the bodies of 18 missing relatives.

Despite the devastation there, Mr. Azazi says that Gazanes today have learned the lessons of previous generations and most “prefer to jump into the sea than to leave.”

Those who once saw going as a temporary offer for refuge, now see it as helping Israel’s extreme right -wing nationalists take Palestinian lands.

“The Gazanes have gone through this before,” says Yousef, who was born in the camp. “At that time, they told us that it would be temporary, and we would return to our house. The right to return is a red line.”

“When our ancestors left, they had no weapons to fight, like Hamas now,” another man tells me. “Now the youngest generation is fully aware of what happened with our ancestors, and it will never happen again. Now there is resistance.”

The Palestinians are not the only ones looking for refuge in Jordan, a small stability superpower surrounded by the many conflicts of the Middle East.

The Iraqis arrived here, fleeing the war in the early 2000s. A decade later, the Syrians also arrived, which led Jordan’s king to warn that his country was in “boiling point.”

Many native Jordans blame the waves of refugees for high unemployment and poverty at home. A food bank next to the mosque in the center of Amman told us to deliver 1,000 meals a day.

Waiting for work outside the mosque, we met Imad Abdallah and his friend Hassan, both workers of the day who have not worked in months.

“The situation in Jordan used to be great, but when there was war in Iraq, things got worse, when there was war in Syria, it worsened, there is now a war in Gaza, it has worsened a lot,” Hassan said. “Any war that occurs near us, we get worse, because we are a country that helps and leads people.”

Imad was Blunter, worried about feeding his four children.

“Foreigners come and take our work,” he told me. “Now I have four months without work. I have no money, no food. If the Gazans come, we will die.”

But Jordan is also under pressure from his key military ally. Trump has already suspended US aid worth more than $ 1.5 billion a year. And many here are prepared for a growing confrontation between the new president of the United States and their own political leaders, who are going back.

Jawad Anani, former Deputy Prime Minister near the Jordanian government, says King Abdullah’s message to Donald Trump in the White House on Tuesday will be clear: “We consider any attempt from Israel or others to get people out of their own homes in Gaza. And The West Bank as a criminal act.

Even if the Gazans wanted to relocate voluntarily, temporarily, as part of a broader Middle East plan, he said, the trust simply was not there.

“There is no trust,” he said. “While Netanyahu is involved, he and his government, there is no confidence in any promise that someone does.

Trump’s determination to boost his vision of Gaza could end up pushing a United States allied key to a critical choice.

Last Friday, Miles protested here against Trump’s proposal.

Jordan is home to US military bases, and millions of refugees, and their security cooperation is crucial for Israel, concerned about smuggling the routes in occupied West Bank.

Any risk to Jordan’s stability also means risks to his allies. If the stability is Jordan’s superpower, the threat of disturbances is his greatest weapon and his best defense.

Additional reports: Mohamed Madi, BBC News