The Kingdom of Jordan seems to have miscalculated badly in its dealings with Isis (Islamic State) to negotiate the release of its captured pilot. Being strung along by Isis as the world watched was its own humiliation.
The wretched execution of the hostage, burned alive in a cage while the video ran, confirmed Isis was never to be trusted. If, as some allege, the killing happened almost a month before the video emerged, and before talks began, a hideous misjudgment by Jordan is confirmed.
Isis proved it is prepared to escalate its provocations beyond almost anything a nation could contemplate. Jordan had already joined the international fight against Isis, but the killing could unify even the Islamists in its borders against this despicable mob.
The Amman Government's reaction to pilot Muath al-Kasaesbeh's death was to execute two prisoners it held, including the woman Isis had asked for in return. She had been a failed suicide bomber and it is safe to say the eye-for-an-eye execution carried far less impact with her Isis handlers than the national grief Jordan suffered from the manner of al-Kasaesbeh's demise.
King Abdullah vowed strong retaliation against Isis, which he correctly labelled a "criminal organisation that has no ties to our religion". He would have been assured by the declaration by a hardline Jordanian Salafist movement leader that "all of Jordan, Islamists and liberals, East Bank and West Bank - are all united against them".
