“Bitter friends and good enemies” is how a seasoned former Jordanian official once described the relationship between Jordan and Israel to Al-Monitor. After a tumultuous 2017, the Israeli government finally offered Jordan a formal “apology” Jan. 18 for the July 23 killing of two Jordanians by an Israeli Embassy security guard in Amman and the gunning down of a Jordanian judge who was crossing into the West Bank on March 10, 2014. The apology ostensibly closed the chapter on the worst crisis to hit the two countries' relations since they signed a peace treaty in 1994.

Mohammad al-Momani, a Jordanian government spokesman and the minister of state for media affairs, said in a Jan. 18 statement that the Foreign Ministry had received an official memo from its Israeli counterpart. He said, “The Israeli government expressed its apology and deep regrets regarding the Israeli Embassy incident in July last year, resulting in the martyrdom of two Jordanian citizens, and also regarding the incident of killing Judge Raed Zuaiter.” Momani said the Israeli government had accepted, as indicated in its letter, all the conditions set by Jordan to permit the return of Israel's ambassador to Amman.

Jordanians immediately began to question the claim that all of Amman's conditions for reopening the Israeli Embassy, closed since July, had been met. King Abdullah II had on July 27 demanded that Israel put on trial the Israeli guard whom Jordan accused of killing the two Jordanians before allowing the embassy to reopen. “We demand that the Israeli Prime Minister [Benjamin Netanyahu] abides by his commitment and takes all measures to ensure the trial of the killer, and not handle this like a political show to achieve personal political gains,” Abdullah said.

The government did not release the text of the Israeli letter, purported to contain the apology and a commitment to take legal action regarding the embassy incident in addition to an offer of compensation to the victims’ families. A brief acknowledgment on the website of the Israeli prime minister's office failed to provide details. The note read, “The Israeli authorities will continue reviewing materials regarding the July 2017 incident and anticipate making a decision in the coming weeks.” It added that the embassy in Amman will return to full activity immediately.