October 26 marked 20 years since the signing of a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan in 1994. Since Jordan makes up nearly the whole of Israel’s eastern border, its peace with Israel—only the second Arab state after Egypt to hold such an agreement—has contributed greatly to Israel’s security these past two decades.

Suddenly, however, that treaty appears to be under threat.

In recent months, Jerusalem has steadily become engulfed in the worst violence it has seen in a decade—what some have termed a “third intifada.” Israeli Jews have been targeted in thousands of random, violent incidents using thrown rocks, Molotov cocktails, fireworks used as weapons, stabbings, shootings, and even vehicles driven at ramming speed into groups of pedestrians.

On October 29, a Palestinian gunman tried to assassinate Yehuda Glick, an Israeli activist campaigning for Jews’ rights to pray at al-Aqsa Mosque. The next day, Israeli police shot and killed the suspected shooter, then shut down the Temple Mount. They entered al-Aqsa Mosque in order to track down rioters. Inside they found a cache of stones, bottles and Molotov cocktails—proof of this “place of worship” being an incubator for faith-based violence.

Justified as this intrusion proved to be, however, it enraged Palestinian leaders. A spokesman for Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas called the police doing their job nothing less than “a declaration of war on the Palestinian people and its sacred places and on the Arab and Islamic nation.” Several other Muslim leaders picked up the banner of grievance against Israel defending itself. Turkey’s Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, for example, called the Israeli presence on the Temple Mount “cruelty to the core.”

Jordan was among those nations expressing outrage. Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh insisted, “These violations are infuriating the emotions and the sensitivity of 1.5 billion Muslims around the world.” Jordan recalled its ambassador from Israel. A few days later, King Abdullah canceled his nation’s participation in a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Jordan-Israel peace treaty.

The Temple Mount compound is administered by a Jordanian organization called the Waqf. Jordan’s guardianship of this holy site has been in place for decades and is codified in the 1994 treaty.

After Israeli police clashes with Palestinians on the Temple Mount on November 5, Jordan told the United Nations Security Council that it was ready to take measures to stop Israel’s actions. Jordanian Ambassador Dina Kawar wrote, “Jordan considers such serious and outrageous actions by Israel an unprecedented escalation.”

Jordan warns that it intends to reevaluate its diplomatic ties with Israel, including its peace accord. Some officials are calling for the treaty to be revoked.

Anxious Israeli leaders have responded by backing away from the Temple Mount and reassuring Amman that its role there will not change.

The last thing Israel needs is the loss of another valuable alliance. Already what few alliances Israel has had helping to guarantee its security are fracturing. Turkey, once a stable friend, is transforming into a quite radical Islamic state. Political instability and radicalism in Egypt put that nation’s 35-year peace accord with Israel in doubt. And relations with Washington, bad throughout the Obama administration’s six years, have recently gotten even worse.

It could be that the highest leaders in Amman value their relationship with Israel. They have a strong interest in Israel keeping the Palestinians under control and suppressing Arab unrest that could easily spill over into Jordan. However, the nation has a large Palestinian minority and a popular majority that has no such affection for the Jews. If nothing else, King Abdullah and other Jordanian officials speaking out so strongly demonstrates their need to placate the anti-Israel hostility among their people.

Biblical prophecy suggests that eventually, it is the antipathy for Israel that will win out within this Arab nation (read our article “A Mysterious Alliance”).

Israel’s growing isolation is even more troubling in conjunction with the renewed intifada in Jerusalem. And meanwhile, the Jews’ greatest nightmare—a nuclear-armed Iran—has never been closer to becoming reality.

Israel’s position is growing more desperate. And what happens next in this volatile region has implications far beyond this tiny nation. To discover what the Bible prophesies will occur, read Jerusalem in Prophecy.