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"It would be better for everyone," he said.
Shukri Qiraja, now 62, was a soldier in Jordan's Arab Legion, guarding Jerusalem's Damascus Gate when the Israelis stormed through in that war. He hurriedly changed from his uniform to civilian clothes, and later slipped back to Amman to complete 24 years in the military. He, too, approves of peace with his former enem...
"Why not? It's a good step," he said at his home in Madaba, 20 miles south of Amman.
Jordan's King Hussein will meet today with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Washington, the latest in a series of symbolic "firsts" likely to lead to peace between the longtime enemies.
In Washington, a senior U.S. official said yesterday that Israel and Jordan will issue a joint declaration today ending their 46-year-long state of war and laying out plans for normalizing relations. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres told reporters that he expects a peace treaty within a few months.
Perhaps more remarkable than what is happening is the equanimity with which Jordanians are accepting the turn of events.
This is a country that fought two wars with Israel and where more than half the population is Palestinian. Virtually every Palestinian family lost its home in the flight from the 1948 or 1967 conflicts.
Yet today, there is not much excitement about the conciliation with Israel. The majority of Jordanians simply accept it.
"People have resigned themselves to it. They are quite indifferent," said Sari Nasir, a sociologist in Amman.
There have been no demonstrations, few public displays of opposition -- or support -- as old taboos have been broken with handshakes and formal visits by Israeli leaders.
When King Hussein started this flurry of steps with a speech July 9 saying that he was willing to meet publicly with Israelis, Jordaniansswitched channels to watch the World Cup playoffs.
"To be honest, I'm not so interested," said a university professor who normally prides himself on keeping informed. "I lost interest when the same leaders that were telling us we will liberate Palestine started saying that just making peace was a victory."
Many Jordanians believe that their country is trapped: pressured by the United States and hemmed in by the maneuverings of the other Arab nations. They say that King Hussein has no other move than to make peace with Israel now.
"We tried war, and it was no good," said Sameh Salame Khzouz,59, co-owner of a refrigerator repair shop in Madaba.
"We want the peace because there is no other way," agreed his partner, Nikola Kawar.
When Yasser Arafat, chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, revealed his secret negotiations with the Israelis and signed a pact with them last September, the ranks of Arab unity in the latest round of negotiations were broken.
"People think, . . . if Arafat can shake hands with Rabin, so what's the problem with the king doing it?' " said Metri Twal, an Amman travel agent.
King Hussein acted now in part to avoid being left behind if Syria and Lebanon strike deals with the Israelis, many believe.
"Right now, it's a good step. If Syria signed first, Jordan would lose much," said Mr. Khzouz.
Perhaps more to the point, King Hussein is moving now as if under orders from the United States. He admitted as much in a candid speech to Parliament two weeks ago.
He said that the United States had demanded the moves toward Israel. In return, the Americans said they would write off nearly $1 billion in Jordanian debts to the United States and sell it more modern weapons, the king said.
"If my encounter with the Israeli prime minister is the price . . . I consider it as a duty and honor to serve my nation," he said, sounding like a soldier on a suicide mission.
This financial blackmail by the United States is effective in economically strapped Jordan. The country of 4.5 million people has little industry and few natural resources.
Before the 1991 Persian Gulf war, it depended on aid from gulf Arab states and money sent back by a far-flung work force in the Arab world. Jordan found both sources cut off when King Hussein sided with Iraq in the war. Jordan is desperate to turn those spigots back on.
"Jordan doesn't have any alternatives," said Dr. Nasir. "Unless Jordan finds some material resources, it needs outside help."
Bowing to the demands of the United States, which Jordanians see as the patron of Israel, does not sit well with some here. It is one reason for the lack of enthusiasm for the king's meeting with Mr. Rabin.
"Support for the peace process was stronger two years ago. Part of the euphoria and great expectations . . . are not there anymore," said Radwan Abdullah, chairman of the political science department of the University of Jordan.
"People became disillusioned. They support the peace moves, but it's a negative sense. If you're in a house, you don't want the roof to collapse. People are desperate, and they know there is no chance except peace."
The Islamic parties, who oppose any deal with Israel, compose almost one-third of the Jordanian Parliament. But Dr. Abdullah said that public support for those parties would dwindle if they openly challenge the royal regime.
"The king still is very popular," he said. "He's a sense of stability. He's holding things together."
The king's support has always been greatest among the native Jordanians, the Bedouins. They also are dedicated soldiers, and took heavy casualties in the wars with Israel.
"Many people here lost relatives in the wars with Israel, and they don't want to repeat that," said Ali Al-Hroot, a university professor and a Bedouin who lives in the small village of Libb, south of Amman.
"They believe in the king 100 percent. If he says it's time to make peace, the people believe him."
The most likely opposition would seem to be from Palestinians. But many of them -- especially those who fled to Jordan in 1948 -- havesince settled here comfortably.
In a section of Madaba still officially a Palestinian refugee camp -- though it is neat and developed -- Azit Ja'ara, 56, said that he is for peace. But he added, "I don't know if it will be good for Palestinians."
His family fled in 1948 from an Arab village west of Jerusalem, since razed. The king's conciliation with Israel formally surrenders Arab claims to those former Arab villages that are now part of Israel.
"After that, I guess I will be Jordanian," said Mr. Ja'ara with a shrug. "That will be OK."
But elsewhere in the Palestinians' camp, 18-year-old Khalid Ahmad swears his opposition to any peace with Israel. "I don't like Israelis coming into Jordan," he said.
But others do. If peace with Israel brings open borders with tourists and trade, financial aid from the West and a welcome from the gulf states for Jordanian workers to return, then it will be a popular step, say Jordanians.
"What do we have to lose?" said a top government official, who insisted on anonymity. "We've been at war for 50 years. We hate their guts, and they hate our guts. But now it's over."
Ironically, he noted, peace with Israel probably will bring protection by Jordan's former enemy from any threats from other Arab states.
"King Hussein is going to be depending on God . . . and the Israelis," he said. "Israel is our new ally."
I wore my flag tonight. First time. Until now I haven't thought it necessary to display a little metallic icon of patriotism for everyone to see. It was enough to vote, pay my taxes, perform my civic duties, speak my mind, and do my best to raise our kids to be good Americans.
Sometimes I would offer a small prayer of gratitude that I had been born in a country whose institutions sustained me, whose armed forces protected me, and whose ideals inspired me; I offered my heart's affections in return. It no more occurred to me to flaunt the flag on my chest than it did to pin my mother's picture...
So what's this doing here? Well, I put it on to take it back. The flag's been hijacked and turned into a logo the trademark of a monopoly on patriotism. On those Sunday morning talk shows, official chests appear adorned with the flag as if it is the good housekeeping seal of approval. During the State of the Union, d...
But more galling than anything are all those moralistic ideologues in Washington sporting the flag in their lapels while writing books and running Web sites and publishing magazines attacking dissenters as un-American. They are people whose ardor for war grows disproportionately to their distance from the fighting. The...
So I put this on as a modest riposte to men with flags in their lapels who shoot missiles from the safety of Washington think tanks, or argue that sacrifice is good as long as they don't have to make it, or approve of bribing governments to join the coalition of the willing (after they first stash the cash.) I put it o...
Gonorrhoea is the second most common sexually transmitted infection across the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries with almost 5,00,000 reported cases between 2007 and 2016. It is treatable but Neisseria gonorrhoeae is showing high levels of resistance to azithromycin, according to recent resul...
This antibiotic is part of the currently recommended therapy regimen for gonorrhoea and observed resistance patterns threaten its effectiveness. Each year, countries of the EU/EEA participate in ECDC's sentinel Euro-GASP to test susceptibility of Neisseria gonorrhoeae to the antibiotics commonly used for gonorrhoea tre...
This way ECDC monitors the effectiveness of the recommended antibiotic treatment. The 2017 Euro-GASP results indicate that the rates of resistance to cefixime, ceftriaxone and azithromycin have remained stable when compared to recent years.
In 2017, 27 EU/EEA countries collected and tested 3 248 gonococcal isolates which revealed that cefixime and azithromycin resistance (1.9% and 7.5% respectively) remained unchanged compared to 2016 (2.1% and 7.5%).
However, the number of countries reporting resistant isolates for each antimicrobial increased. For the second year in a row, no isolates with resistance to ceftriaxone were detected in contrast to one in 2015, five in 2014 and seven in 2013.
"The fact that we have not seen ceftriaxone resistance among the tested isolates for two consecutive years is promising. But at the same time, the persistent level of resistance to azithromycin across Europe is a major concern for us because it compromises the recommended dual therapy with ceftriaxone and azithromycin"...
"There is no available vaccine and the capacity for surveillance of resistance patterns is insufficient in some regions. If the common antibiotics stop working due to resistance, we only have very limited alternatives left to successfully treat gonorrhoea."
Successful gonorrhoea treatment with antibiotics reduces the risk of complications such as pelvic inflammatory disease, ectopic pregnancies, infertility or increased HIV transmission in some settings. Combined with regular testing to diagnose and treat infections at an early stage, it serves as one of the main public h...
According to the latest Euro-GASP results, 86% of patients with available information on their treatment course received ceftriaxone (with or without) azithromycin. The use of two antimicrobials for gonorrhoea therapy, which was introduced in 2012, has likely contributed to increased susceptibility to ceftriaxone.
However, data completeness for the Euro-GASP isolates regarding the used treatment course still needs to improve as information on this was only available for one-third (37%) of tested isolates in 2017.
Recent reports of extensively drug-resistant gonorrhoea strains, make it vital to understand if changes in resistance prevalence are the consequence of modifications in treatment, sexual behaviour in different sexual networks, the gonococcal strain distribution or due to other reasons.
ECDC will publish its revised regional response plan to control multidrug-resistant gonorrhoea later this year. The plan outlines options to minimise the threat of drug-resistant gonorrhoea in Europe.
Members of 2nd Marine Division will be getting in the holiday swing this weekend.
The 2nd Marine Division commanding general is hosting a Holiday Concert featuring the 2nd Marine Division Band at 3 p.m. Sunday at Camp Lejeune Base Theater, according to base officials. The concert will feature performances by several ensembles within the 2nd Marine Division band, including concert band, jazz ensemble...
The concert is free and open to the public. Doors open at 2 p.m.
Donations of new, unwrapped toys will be accepted at the concert for Toys for Tots. Donations are not required for admission.
Those without base access must stop provide a driver�s license, proof of insurance and vehicle registration at the Main Gate Visitors Center to obtain a visitor pass.
The concert will also stream live online at dvidshub.net/webcast/3596.
Ten thousand jubilant Atletico Madrid fans turned out to greet the club’s new record signing, Colombian striker Radamel Falcao.
After giving his first press interviews at his new club, Falcao was paraded in front of the fans gathered at Atletico’s Vicente Calderon stadium.
Accompanied by Atletico legend Paulo Futre and the club president and sporting director, “El Tigre”, dressed in the club’s famous red, white and blue strip, treated the fans to a display of his ball skills as they chanted his name.
Falcao signed for Atletico in a $57.3 million dollar deal last week after a protracted transfer battle between Atletico, their Spanish rivals Real Madrid and a host of English Premier League clubs.
If you’ve listened to the debate on how the United States should avoid going over the “fiscal cliff” over the past months, you might believe that the government has only two options to address its budget woes — either slash social programs, as conservatives favor, or the liberal tack, raise taxes. That’s a myopic view,...
Often, to save money you need to change systems or add new functions, not eliminate them.
One such example is the Transitional Care Model (TCM), which provides planning and home follow-up by trained nurses for chronically ill Medicare patients during and after hospitalization. The TCM illustrates a key point. Often, to save money you need to change systems, or add new functions, not just cut things.
Returning home after hospitalization for, say, heart failure or surgery, patients and their relatives are apt to be overwhelmed. Often there are complicated regimens of medications to follow (half of Medicare beneficiaries live with three chronic conditions and 20 percent live with five or more). Key information about ...
Because of things like this, more than a third of elderly patients discharged from hospitals in the United States are re-admitted within 90 days, often needlessly.
The Coalition for Evidence-Based Policy lists the Transitional Care Model in its ranks of programs that meet Congressional standards for “top-tier evidence.” The Coalition reports that studies of the TCM (conducted with different groups of chronically ill Medicare patients in different settings) showed that it reduces ...
Mary Naylor, a professor at University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing who has researched the TCM extensively, observes that one of the ways that TCM succeeds is by acting proactively to “interrupt” things that could go wrong before they do. The same thinking extends to programs that successfully reduce the incidence...
As they say in business, it takes money to make money. TCM’s nurses receive advanced training as primary care coordinators. They become skilled at engaging patients, family members, physicians and other community members. They make their first home visit usually within a day of discharge and continue for up to three mo...
There are numerous examples like TCM — with enough evidence to justify expansion and further study or widespread adoption. Many programs we have reported on in Fixes are potentially big budget savers. The Nurse Family Partnership has been shown to reduce child abuse and crime and improve long-term educational outcomes ...
As I reported last May, the Obama administration has promised to focus more on rigorous evidence in its 2014 budget. Indeed, many federal programs fail to show results when subjected to large rigorous evaluations. But while it’s easy for budget hawks to call for the axe, we have to remember that cutting a program doesn...
Shifting the dynamic from an endless argument about tax revenues versus spending cuts, to a discussion about how to spur innovation and evaluate performance could help Congress act more responsibly. One tool that Baron advocates is for federal agencies to make more systematic use of waivers (pdf), giving states more le...
This happened during the 1980s and 1990s, when many states experimented with modifications to federal welfare rules accompanied by rigorous studies to see if they actually helped people find employment and move out of poverty.
The evidence became central to the debate about how to reform welfare, recalled Howard Rolston, former director of the office of planning, research and evaluation in the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, who oversaw many of the welfare evaluations. “In such a ...
In the end, the long term strength of any society hinges on whether its members are predominately healthy, law abiding and capable of working together and making meaningful contributions. If we stop nurturing and investing in credible fixes for these challenges, we really will go over a cliff.
TORONTO — A Health Canada review of sunscreens has found no new safety concerns, although the federal department found mild to moderate skin reactions can occur in people sensitive to the products’ ingredients on rare occasions.
The review followed Health Canada’s testing earlier this year of 27 sunscreen brands. It did not identify any serious concerns with the quality of the products.
Questions about sunscreen safety arose in summer 2017 when Health Canada received a higher than usual number of reports describing skin reactions related to the use of Banana Boat products.
Several mothers complained that their babies suffered burn injuries after using a Banana Boat sunscreen. A B.C. woman said her 12-year-old son developed severe blisters after using one of the products.
Health Canada suggests consumers test children, and especially babies, for a reaction before using sunscreen broadly. This can be done by using a product on a small patch of skin on the inner forearm for several days in a row.
Stop using the product if the skin turns red or develops an unusual reaction. Medical care should be sought in the case of children and babies.
Health Canada says regular use of broad-spectrum sunscreen with an SPF of 30 or higher helps to prevent sunburn and reduces the risk of skin cancer.
Businesses use credit reports to determine whether to lend credit to someone. But as Oliver explained, nearly a quarter of every credit report contains inaccurate information, including critical errors that can block a person from getting hired at a job and even renting an apartment.
It’s an error-ridden process by which many important life events are effectively destroyed. Watch above to see how Oliver tries to get credit reporting companies to understand the gravity of these routine mistakes.
Three-row SUVs are all the rage these days, and not even because people need all those seats—they’re just nice to have. You know what else is all the rage these days? Jeeps. And not because people need the off-road capability—it’s just nice to have. So what better way to give people capability they don’t actually need ...
The number of SUVs you can buy with three rows these days is staggering; many of them are so small, the third row is basically useless for anything but a short jog to the ice cream shop with the grandkids. But alas, crossover buyers want third rows, and that’s obvious when you look at at vehicles like the Nissan Rogue—...
He went on, proving that the Lexus’ choice to forgo a third-row option was a huge mistake by citing the vehicle’s main rivals—the Acura MDX (based on the three-row Honda Pilot) and Infiniti QX60 (based on the three-row Nissan Pathfinder), which all offer seating for seven.
A number of vehicles that traditionally only offer two rows, like the upcoming larger Volkswagen Tiguan—are throwing another row in there, because people just want that capability. Who are automakers to deny them?
That’s a question we should all be asking Jeep, the brand that specializes in crossovers, and a brand that is doing everything it can to build new products that fill pretty much every gap in the market (and for good reason—the world won’t stop buying Jeeps).
I mean, just look at the 2017 Compass; somehow, Jeep has managed to squeeze a vehicle between the small Jeep Renegade and also fairly small Jeep Cherokee. With such a drive to dominate every facet of the SUV market, it’s surprising there’s no three-row Jeep yet.
There is now, however, the 2017 Jeep Yuntu Concept, whose images Jeep just released before the unveiling at the Shanghai Motor Show. We don’t know a lot about the new Jeep, though Carscoops cites rumors that it will be based on the KL Cherokee, and that it may feature a hybrid powertrain.
International Business Times says that hybrid powertrain could be a 3.6-liter plug-in hybrid (similar to the Chrysler Pacifica), and that the vehicle will likely form the basis for a 2018 flagship planned for the Chinese market.

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