Before last week's elections, Jordan's most popular political party, the Islamic Action Front, regularly organized protests against Israel's war in Gaza and recent incursions into the occupied West Bank.

During these, party supporters called out slogans like "we are all Hamas" and "Yahya Sinwar [who heads Hamas] is our leader." Supporters of the Islamic Action Front, or IAF, also often demanded that Jordan scupper its long-running peace treaty with neighboring Israel, signed in 1994.

Perhaps, given the anger in Jordan about the civilian impact of Israel's military campaign against the Hamas militant group in Gaza and the fact that around half of Jordan's population has Palestinian roots, it should not have come as a surprise that the IAF did particularly well in Jordan's parliamentary elections last week.

The IAF, a political party representing the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood group in the country, became the largest in the Jordanian parliament, winning 31 out of the 138 seats. The Muslim Brotherhood, which exists throughout the Middle East, is Jordan's oldest and largest Islamist organization.

The election result was the Islamists' best in 35 years. Observers say the IAF's focus on the Gaza conflict was part of the reason for the success. But the party also managed to attract votes from other groups beyond its conservative Muslim base.

This is due partially to what Ahmad Sharawi, a research analyst at the conservative US-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies,........

© Deutsche Welle