Jordan and Israel

Let the ivory tower professors who authored “End the Myth of the ‘Threat From the East’ ” (Commentary, March 29) end the myth that poverty “remains the greatest threat to the Hashemite kingdom” of Jordan. With fully 75% of his constituency ethnically Palestinian, Jordan’s King Abdullah II, to save his life, never mind his throne, needs friendship with a strong Israel. If Western power brokers continue to dismantle Israel in the name of “peace,” Abdullah II will be doomed as well.

If Israel’s survival is made untenable by the establishment of a Palestinian state within its midst (still the goal of the Palestine National Covenant), then Abdullah’s threat from the West will end the myth of peace in a “new” Middle East.

JULIAN WHITE

Los Angeles