The Smiling Tyrant.

Nothing better (perhaps) illustrates the American hypocrisy in ostensibly championing human rights and democracy in the Arab world than the jovial reception always given to the Jordanian King and his Queen.

Jordan’s King was the first Mid-East leader to visit President Obama, and his wife - whom is obsessed with silly YouTube Q&A videos - is an annual guest at the Clinton Global Initiative (a love-fest for that narcissist) and was a guest on Oprah. Both are showered with praise for being “moderate” and “pioneers” and about how they want to build democracy in Jordan. The only reason they are treated with such feigned kindness is because Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, otherwise they would be dismissed. Arab leaders and Arabs in general have their humanity judged in the United States according to one rubric: their approach toward Israel. An Arab could be fundamentally descent, but if he criticizes Israel he is portrayed as a terrorist in American media. If he is a Nazi like Anwar Sadat but signed a peace agreement with Israel then all of a sudden is a hero to the world and a man of great principle.

King Abduallah and Queen Rayna are neither bright (she has a London PR firm behind her), contribute (nearly) nothing to progress in the region and are oppressive; but they get a free pass for said reasons.

King Abduallah is often portrayed as the rule-of-law King unlike Arab despots. But he is more authoritarian than his late father. The King has slowly curbed the powers of the parliament and the right to freedom of the press. Jordan used to tolerate public criticism of the monarchy (within limits), but under Abduallah - who, I read, is obsessed with Playstation - the nation is growing more tyrannical in stifling even the most timid words:

An Israeli Arab man on a business trip to Jordan was arrested by the state’s authorities for speaking ill of King Abdullah II.During his visit to Jordan,the businessman allegedly made public statements against the king. This was made known to the Jordanian authorities. At the behest of the Israeli’s family, a hearing will be held Sunday in a Jordanian court during which it will be ruled whether he will be allowed to return to Israel.

And that so-called (but not really) “only democracy in the Middle East” Israel will not come to the defense of its own citizens: 1) he is an Arab, Israel does not care about Arabs beyond “its” borders let alone in a foreign nation; 2) the Jewish state will not protest because it does not want to irritate one of only two Arab nations with a peace treaty with the country.

And the American media will not notice either and will continue to propagate the myth of the Hashemite monarchy.

If he was an Israeli Jew, Jordanian authorities would not touch his hair even if cursed the King from a rooftop and if he was arrested for even 5 minutes the U.S. Congress would pass a resolution condemning Jordan for “terrorism.”