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Will the government expel the Israeli ambassador?

Mar 17,2014 - Last updated at Mar 17,2014

In response to the killing of a Jordanian jurist by an Israeli soldier last week, Jordan’s Lower House of Parliament demanded on Wednesday that the government expel Israel’s ambassador, pull out Jordanian ambassador from Tel Aviv and release former army soldier Ahmed Daqamseh, who killed seven Israeli schoolgirls in 1997.

In a stormy session, the majority of parliamentarians made it perfectly clear that if the demands are not met by Tuesday (today), there will be a vote of no confidence in the Ensour government.

This is not the first time that the Parliament asks the government to expel the Israeli ambassador. On two other occasions, in 2014, parliamentarians threatened to vote the government out if it ignored this particular issue. They failed to even discuss such a motion.

Will this time be different?

Hardly.

The government believes that the Parliament’s demand is an unrealistic grandstanding.

Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour has been active, since Wednesday, meeting members of Parliament to try to sway them.

Not surprisingly, the government will not implement any of the three demands.

Speaker of Parliament Atef Tarawneh was informed that the country would not succumb to these “unrealistic” demands.

The government believes that Parliament went too far and that these demands hurt the country’s interests.

To be sure, some members of Parliament understand this logic.

Deputy Jamil Nimri wrote that voting the government out would not lead to the formation of a government that would carry out these demands.

Explicit in Nimri’s writing is that Parliament will not put pressure on the government to meet its demands.

Nimri supported the demand to expel the Israeli ambassador in the past.

Today, there are two main trends in Parliament. One argues that there is an opportunity to bring down the government and restore the standing of the Parliament.

Ensour, according to them, is not popular. Furthermore, Ensour won every battle against his opponents in Parliament.

Undoubtedly, there is a personal issue here, and some seek to settle their account with the premier.

On the other hand, there is another trend with another rationale. It argues that implementing the parliamentarians’ demands is beyond the capacity of the government, that only the head of state can make these decisions, and certainly not the government.

Followers of this trend have yet to convince one why they supported the government’s domestic unpopular measures.

It will be a surprise if Parliament succeeds in bringing down the government.

Most likely, the government will emerge stronger and the Parliament will only take another unnecessary hit.

It is high time for Parliament to focus on proper parliamentary work, rather than issue toothless threats.

The public lost faith in the Parliament.

I see the controversy about the vote of no confidence as the last nail in the Parliament’s coffin.

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