“It all happened because of one photo. This affair could have ended much sooner.” This was what a senior member of Israel’s Security Cabinet told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, six months after the July 2017 shooting to death of two Jordanians by an Israeli Embassy guard that set off a severe crisis between the countries.

This week, after tumultuous shuttle diplomacy between King Abdullah’s palace in Amman and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office in Jerusalem, the crisis appeared to be nearing resolution. Now, after Israel agreed to apologize publicly, pay millions of dollars in compensation, replace its ambassador in Jordan and complete its investigation of the fatal incident, the king has finally given in to the heavy pressure exerted on him in recent months. The Israeli Embassy in Amman will reopen as soon as a new ambassador is found to run it.

Much of the crisis could have been averted had Netanyahu not insisted on rushing to cash in on the affair from both a public and political perspective. Immediately after Jordanian authorities allowed the ambassador and the guard to leave Amman and return to Jerusalem, Netanyahu’s office issued a photo of himself with the guard who had killed the two Jordanian citizens in an incident that had yet to be fully explained at the time. Netanyahu’s office also disseminated a taped conversation with Israeli Ambassador Einat Schlein, who had accompanied the guard to the meeting. The photo had an incendiary effect. The Jordanian monarch was furious, and the local crisis turned into a strategic issue overnight. This is not the first time Israel has had to pay dearly for Netanyahu’s haste, recklessness and inclination to cash in on public credit at the expense of Israel’s strategic national interests. Some of his ministers share this view, but they obviously keep it to themselves.

The incident occurred on July 22, 2017, when an Israeli guard was attacked with a screwdriver by a young Jordanian who was installing furniture at the home of one of the embassy staff in the Jordanian capital. The guard pulled out his gun and shot the assailant dead, also killing the owner of the apartment in the fray. The incident set off a powerful storm and a deep crisis in ties between the two neighbors. Shin Bet chief Nadav Argaman had to intervene personally so the Jordanian authorities would allow the guard and Ambassador Schlein to return to Israel. And then came Netanyahu: Instead of downplaying the incident and laying low, Netanyahu spoke by phone with the ambassador and posed for a photo embracing the guard who had been invited to his office. The photo and taped conversation distributed to the media generated deep anger at the palace in Amman. “The king was furious,” a senior Israeli security source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “The fact that the prime minister embraced the guard who had shot dead two Jordanian citizens made the king a laughingstock in Amman and added fuel to the public wave of protests sweeping the capital.”