When many in Jordan and the Arab world weigh the seemingly small gains of the peace process -- and watch the Israeli bulldozers working in Jerusalem -- they do not just see a frightening vision of the future. They see the failed ghosts of their demeaning pasts. PNS commentator Rami Khouri, former editor of the Jordan Times, writes a regular column from Amman.

AMMAN -- Israeli and Arab friends and colleagues these days are strikingly similar in their skepticism about the peace process. This is partly due to policies on both sides and the weaknesses of the Oslo process. But it is also due to a fear of dehumanization -- a peculiar but powerful feeling that our lives have little meaning, our concerns and rights little value, to the powerful people who command our destinies.

Here in Jordan, the growing opposition to the peace process is fueled by disappointment that the country has yet to realize the much-touted benefits promised by the government from peace with Israel. With economic gains way below expectations and water shortages particularly severe in the last two years, there is a deep-seated fear that Israel will exploit Jordan's vulnerabilities and keep it in a condition of dependence, while using it as a bridge to reach other Arab economies.

There is also resentment of the fact that Jordanians had little input into the peace-making process. Absent any genuine domestic debate, some Jordanians feel the peace was imposed on them.

These attitudes have been reinforced by the restrictive political climate here over the last six years. Those opposed to the current government have been prohibited from holding meetings and denied fair access to state-owned media. In this context to speak out against normalization with Israel provided a rare act of legal political opposition to the government. This has led some Jordanians to argue that peace has set back democracy -- and that we have neither full peace nor full democracy today.

Regional issues are also helping to turn public opinion against the peace process. Jordanians have most forcefully expressed pan-Arab sentiments with respect to the brutal conduct of the state and army of Israel in Lebanon and Palestine, and the widespread feeling that we and other Arabs are being continuously humiliated by the insistence that we submit to the primacy of Israeli concerns.

At the Vietnam peace negotiations, a round table symbolically affirmed the equal status of all participants. To many Jordanians this peace process resembles a lecture hall, with Israel standing at the podium and Arabs and others in the audience. There is widespread concern that some issues, such as the final status of refugees, will never be seriously addressed -- that Jordanians of Palestinian origin may forfeit their rights and the country will once again have to be the shock absorber of the Palestine-Israel conflict, which means refugee inflows, economic stress, and domestic political discontent.

In addition, several million Jordanian nationals still have outstanding legal claims against Israel for property or livelihoods lost between 1947 and today -- claims with the same legal and moral validity, say, as the recently publicized claims dating back to World War II against banks or insurance companies in Europe.

Jordanians also fear that peace-making in its current form reinforces Israeli domination of the region and opens the way for American-Israel hegemonic ambitions. The fact that the Jerusalem question is not resolved, along with Jordan's inability to do anything about it, confirms the fear that Jordan may find itself slowly detaching from its Arab hinterland, becoming a "vassal state" whose well-being depends heavily on U.S. and Israeli goodwill.

The Netanyahu government's peace-making suggests to most Jordanians that Palestinian rights will never be achieved, and that the best Palestinians can hope for is a jigsaw puzzle of Semitic Sowetos -- narrowly defined, economically strangled, and geographically isolated ethnic townships and homelands -- part POW camp, part nature reserve, part refugee camp, part historical dumping ground.

All these concerns about the current peace process follow half a century of Arab struggle against Israel and Zionism. We are told it has ended, and we are now friends and partners with Israel and Zionism -- while Israel continues to expand settlements, Judaize east Jerusalem, and treat the Palestinians, Lebanese and Syrians like squatter populations.

When many in Jordan and the Arab world weigh the seemingly small gains of this peace process -- and watch the Israeli bulldozers working in Jerusalem -- they do not just see a frightening vision of the future. They see the failed ghosts of their demeaning pasts.