Never did I regard the ambassador's visits as a fleeting event, nor even as ceremonial occasions; rather, I regard them as a mirror; we observe ourselves and shudder at our authenticity, and we view the West and see its bygone illusions lost in the mists of history, and it also exposes our breakage before the illusion of power and symbolism!
In the tribal council, where every wink and gesture is noted, and every coffee cup analyzed; the problem becomes evident: the heat that does not melt sovereignty, and the authenticity that does not freeze history!
Here sits the ambassador among us, with all his flesh and his prosperous beard and the culture that taught him and learns from him that the relationship between peoples and nations is based solely on interests and protocols! As for us, we transform his visit into an epic Nabati poem among the poems of tribal glory, where symbolism mixes with politics, and generosity with the state, warmth with strength!
In my opinion, the ambassador's visit does not represent a political event as much as it is a cultural mirror that reveals our dual reading; we live a frightening duality between the warmth we feel and the coldness we do not see!
The West misreads us when it searches in the tribal council for remnants of history, and we misunderstand ourselves when we believe that the warmth of coffee can melt the ice of politics!
The Jordanian tribe has never been a fossilized entity as the West desires to see it, nor is it contrary to the state, but has always been the backbone on which the modern state is built, as it was the true partner in establishing social and political security and stability; from its councils emerged the leaderships that founded the Arab army and the security apparatus, and from its meetings formed the national consciousness that combined Jordanian, Palestinian, Circassian, Chechen, Syrian, Druze, Iraqi, Turkish origins in a single pot of loyalty.
We are not just a tribe! We are a living, deeply rooted state, and the difference between the two descriptions is the difference between longing for the past and confidence in the present.
In my opinion, the problem does not reside in the ambassador's visit, but in the hysterical reading surrounding it; some transform the rituals of hospitality into political signals, and see in a coffee cup a diplomatic message, and in the offering of one or two sheep heads, a recognition of a role!
And the wild imagination of some envisions that the ambassador might be asked to mediate a tribal dispute; a conflict arises! Or perhaps as a trustworthy sponsor, or to request daughters for marriage and engagement! As if we live in the age of ancient kingdoms; when ambassadors carried marriage proposals between princes! Here, in my opinion, hospitality transforms into an illusion, and generosity becomes a speech in a language the guest does not understand!
In one of the greatest ironies, I find sometimes that some enthusiasts become "more ambassadors than the ambassador himself"! They launch media battles to defend an honor about which they were never asked! And they guard symbolism that the guest fundamentally does not understand!
That ambassador, brought up in a culture that makes public criticism of the president a national sport, believes he sees our excessive zeal as extreme emotional extremism with no significance!
These are fighting a one-sided battle, in an arena not even opened by the other party! And they think that defending hospitality equates to defending sovereignty, while the truth is that sovereignty cannot be wrested away by generosity, and generosity never replaced the state!
Our history offers a strict lesson in the meaning of sovereignty; when Yasser Arafat visited Diwan Al Atoum in Jerash to offer condolences, he received a call from the then Prime Minister rebuking him for bypassing formal channels, even the great symbol was not above state protocols; this story, narrated by Uncle Abdullah Al Atoum - may God prolong his life - witnesses that good intentions are not enough, and that the state has its rituals that cannot be omitted!
But, beyond all this noise lies the painful reality! The tribe is also required to protect its people just as the state does, or else it becomes more aesthetically appealing than its internal reality. Where are the funds that prevent a talented youth from having to sell his dream... or to migrate? And where are the networks that protect a woman proud to be "daughter of a tribe" from falling into a debt trap? And where... and where.
A strong state does not fear its tribes, and authentic tribes do not bypass their state. The balance between societal warmth and the "coldness" of institutions is the secret to Jordanian stability. Hospitality is a virtue, the tribe a pillar, and the state alone is the encompassing framework that ensures hospitality remains generous and tribes respected.
In my opinion, the ambassador's visit is not a fleeting event, but a double estrangement: the West searches for a myth, and we present it with greatness it does not comprehend!; every impression, every greeting, every wink, every gesture, and every coffee cup is a lesson in sovereignty, a lesson in authenticity, a lesson in the true understanding of the state: a state that does not perish in the councils, nor is defeated in hospitality, but elevates the meaning of the nation above all symbols.
The ambassador's coffee and the prosperous beard, in the gentleness of the state and the firmness of custom, create the Jordanian miracle: the combination of the warmth of hospitality and the firmness of institutions, melting custom and the Constitution in a single national crucible, where no hospitality substitutes for policy, nor policy substitutes for hospitality, and the state alone protects and unites everyone in a stable national crucible.
Liberating ourselves from the obsession with symbolic reading of everything allows us to understand the meaning of nation more.
The ambassador is a visitor, the council a house of generosity, and the state is sovereignty.
And Jordan is too great to be reduced to a misreading of a visit, and too deep to be understood through a coffee cup.
And hospitality remains an honor, the tribe a pillar, and the state alone unites everyone in an enduring nation.
