In a first, Israel lets Jordanian workers cross border for jobs

Washington Post ^ | May 16, 2016 | William Booth and Ruth Eglash

[SJackson]

at 4:34 PM EILAT, Israel — This is what a little peace looks like in the Middle East. A room cleaner named Ahmad. A dishwasher named Mohammad. And a man with a vacuum in the lobby of an Israeli beach hotel.

Israel and Jordan signed their peace treaty in 1994 — that is a generation ago — but it has often been a cold peace, without real people moving back and forth, without workers, wages or bosses.

Now Jordan and Israel have launched a pilot project that is so small and simultaneously so ambitious that it tells the story.

For the past six months, very quietly, Israel has been allowing Jordanians to cross the border to its Red Sea resort to work minimum-wage jobs at hotels.

The first 700 of 1,500 have started.

So far, nothing bad has happened.

“The Jordanians need work, and we need workers,” said the head of the Eilat Hotel Association, Shabtai Shay.

Getting the Jordanians work permits to cross the border from Aqaba to Eilat took three years of negotiations with 10 Israeli ministries, he said.

“It was mission impossible,” Shay said.

[dp0622]

I hope it works out.

Obama’s destruction has made for some strange bed partners

[SJackson]

Middle East and terrorism, occasional political and Jewish issues Ping List. High Volume

If you'd like to be on or off, please FR mail me.

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[GladesGuru]

Fools!

Muslims have always turned on “kufirs”, despite many years of acting friendly to the unsuspecting non-Muslim foolish enough to trust said musloid.

[onona]

I guess we’ll see. Jordan’s the wild card in this whole mess.

[Little Ray]

I suspect they are replacing Pali Arab labor with Jordanians. That might be a good thing.

[VR-21]

"Muslims have always turned on “kufirs”, despite many years of acting friendly to the unsuspecting non-Muslim foolish enough to trust said musloid."

I agree. Trusting a Muslim is like trusting a cottonmouth.