The recent proliferation of attacks on Israel from across the normally quiescent Jordanian border may be linked to the intifada in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
There were seven incidents in 1989, compared to one in 1988, according to Israel Defense Force figures, and almost none in the previous years since 1970.
Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin told an audience of school children in Ramat Gan on Monday that the 2-year-old Palestinian uprising was at least partly responsible for the upsurge.
More than half of Jordanian troops are Palestinian or of Palestinian descent, Rabin pointed out. Some have relatives or friends who have been wounded in the uprising in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, and they may be seeking revenge, he said.
Foreign news reports from Amman say the recent spate of border incidents has unnerved political circles in Jordan. They see them as a reflection of the growing influence of Islamic fundamentalists, who scored heavily in the recent Jordanian parliamentary elections.
The latest incident occurred Sunday, when an IDF patrol shot to death an armed infiltrator in the Hamat Gader region of the Golan Heights.
The intruder was subsequently identified as a Jordanian soldier missing from his unit. He was believed responsible for several recent attacks on IDF patrols in the area.
According to the IDF, he may have hidden out for days in an old pillbox fort, built by the Turks during World War I to guard the Hedjaz railroad.
Other cross-border attacks have been initiated by pro-Syrian terrorist groups.
The IDF’s success in interdicting attacks from southern Lebanon may have prompted the terrorist groups to shift operations to the Hamat Gader region, where the Syrian, Jordanian and Israeli borders converge.
Infiltrators can enter Israel from Syria by crossing a small strip of Jordanian territory.
Defense Minister Rabin emphasized that it is Jordan’s responsibility to halt such incursions. He said he is sure Amman wants to prevent gunmen from entering Israel from Jordanian territory.
But good intentions are not enough, he added. “We shall judge them first and foremost, by the results.”
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