Nasser needed no more persuasion. Confidently, he told his Free Officer colleagues that “the message from Kosygin is that the Soviet Union supports us in this battle and will not allow any power to intervene until matters are returned to what they were in 1956.”117
Egypt’s confidence in Soviet support was further bolstered by events in the UN Security Council. The Soviet delegate, Federenko, described by colleagues as “brilliant” and a “fiery orator,” a Manchurian-born Far East expert with a penchant for bow-ties and pipes, received strict orders to prevent the acceptance of any resolutions inimical to Egypt. Previously, he had blocked Danish and Canadian attempts to initiate a UN debate on the Middle East, exploiting the opportunity to lash out at the Security Council’s Taiwanese president, Liu Chieh. He also drew sweeping comparisons between Israel and Nazi Germany.
Council members were accustomed to such brimstone from Federenko. But nothing prepared them for his rejection of U Thant’s moratorium idea. The entire crisis, he explained, was a fabrication intended to malign the Arabs and justify aggression. “The USSR does not see sufficient grounds for such a hasty convening of the Security Council and the artificially dramatic climate fostered by the Western Powers.” Federenko evinced a similar rationale in rejecting France’s Four-Power summit proposal, which Britain and the United States had begrudgingly approved. Starting on May 28, he made himself “unavailable” for consultation.118
The moratorium would be beset from other quarters as well—from Israel, which viewed it as UN approval for a blatant act of war, and then from the United States, which, while supporting the suspension of Israeli flagships through the Straits, rejected any ban on “contraband cargoes,” such as oil. Finally, even the Egyptians balked. A hysterical Mohammad El Kony rushed to U Thant’s office with word that Nasser would never agree to the passage of oil and other “strategic materials” to Israel, even on foreign vessels. The secretary-general had just finished giving Gideon Rafael a memorandum asking Eshkol to verify that “no ship flying the flag of Israel is likely to seek passage through the Straits of Tiran in the coming two weeks.” Apprised of the Egyptian position, though, he instructed Bunche to retrieve the cable from Rafael. No explanation was offered.119
Thus, rather than representing the ebb of tensions, the events of the last days of May were merely a reprieve. Far from culminating, the crisis was in fact only beginning, as would soon be evident in Jordan, the country around which it had erupted but which had scarcely been heard from since.
COUNTDOWN
May 31 to June 4
His position was utterly untenable. Hunted by Arab radicals, unable to call on Arab moderates for help, King Hussein faced a crisis in which every party seemed backed by powerful allies. Only Jordan stood alone. If it came, war could cost him half his kingdom, his crown, and, not inconceivably, his life.
Since the Samu’ incident, Hussein had worked hard to avoid further clashes, and secretly exchanged intelligence with Tel Aviv on suspected West Bank terrorists. He hoped to focus Israel’s wrath where it belonged—on Damascus—yet when reports circulated of an impending Israeli invasion of Syria, the king remained incredulous. Jordan’s powerful radar station at ‘Ajlun had picked up no signs of any IDF buildup in the north. Nevertheless, when Eshkol requested that Jordan cease needling Nasser as “the only Arab leader…to live in peace with Israel,” Hussein readily complied. The situation, he could see, was rapidly getting out of control. Not only the West Bank but also the East was seething with praise for Nasser and calls for Israel’s demise.1
“It [Israel] could attack Jordan with impunity, calculating that Egypt and Syria would not come to Jordan’s assistance,” Foreign Minister Ahmad Touqan explained to Ambassador Burns. But now Jordan faced a potentially greater threat: an Egyptian first strike. If the offensive were repulsed, Nasser would use Jordan as his scapegoat. The Palestinians would revolt, perhaps the army as well, toppling the government and replacing it with the PLO. On the other hand, if Egypt succeeded, its forces could then cut across the Negev and continue onward to Amman. Indeed, Hussein was convinced that the Ramtha bombing on May 21 was a device to draw Jordanian soldiers to the Syrian border, leaving the West Bank exposed. Either way, Jordan would lose. The predicament, as defined by royal confidant Zayd al-Rifa’i, was mind-boggling: “Even if Jordan did not participate directly in a war…it would be blamed for the loss of the war and our turn would be next. If we were isolated from the mainstream of Arab politics, we would be an easy target.”2
Navigating through the Egyptian Scylla and Israel’s Charybdis—this was Hussein’s challenge, but the prospects for succeeding seemed meager. Repeatedly, he appealed to Washington for an open statement assuring Jordan’s territorial integrity in the event of a war. He asked Cairo to revive the mutual-defense clauses of the United Arab Command. But none of these efforts bore fruit. The Americans reaffirmed their commitment to Jordan’s independence but, pleading congressional constraints, refused to guarantee it publicly. In Egypt, Gen. ‘Amer Khammash, Jordan’s chief of staff, was told that the UAC was dead, that Jordan should mind its own defense and not “rock the boat.” Even Saudi Arabia and Iraq, which had once volunteered to help defend Jordan, now retracted their offer and extended it instead to Syria.
Hussein’s only answer, then, was to try to stay out of a war between Syria and Israel, and if Egypt became involved, to participate only indirectly and symbolically, by sending a few regiments to Sinai. In either event, Israel was likely to seek vengeance against Jordan—or so the king told an emergency meeting of his ministers and general staff on May 22. Burns observed that Hussein was “prepared for brinkmanship,” and that he would “react like Samson in the temple…risking possible annihilation by the Israelis rather than the high probability of internal revolt.”3 Later that day, the monarch donned a military uniform and watched as his two armored brigades, the 40th and the 60th, paraded through the streets of Amman. The purpose was to make a show of force in the hope of not having to use it. Yet even that goal was denied Hussein by Nasser’s decision on Tiran.
“I was stunned,” Hussein admitted. “For such a measure, lacking in thought and consideration, would only lead to disaster because the Arabs were not ready for war. There was no coordination, no co-operation, no common plan amongst them.” Nasser, he complained to Western diplomats, was “acting like a mad-man,”“incomprehensible and extremely dangerous” and “playing for keeps,” with untold Soviet backing. But sharp as they were, the king’s reservations did not prevent his spokesman from praising the blockade and pledging Jordan’s categorical support for it. No protest could be raised when the USS Green Island, loaded with vital ammunition for the Jordanian army, turned back short of the Straits. The ship’s owners feared that the waters were mined.
Hussein was furious at Nasser, but also bitter towards the White House, which, he claimed, was run by the “Zionist” Rostows, and the Regatta plan, which he saw as a ruse to fortify Israel. “Nasser’s objectives are not a military war with Israel but a political war with the United States,” he warned Burns, and suggested that the president step back and let Israel attack Tiran, so that he could later play the peacemaker. “It would be a great pity if the United States sacrificed its Arab friends, and, indeed, the free world’s influence in the Middle East, for a limitation on Israeli navigational rights.”
Yet, as Washington adhered to what the Arabs perceived as a pro-Israeli line, as Egypt remained in Syria’s grip and rapidly gearing for war, Hussein had no choice but to close ranks with Nasser. He had to convince the Arabs that he was not a puppet of the West, and his own population—“two-thirds Palestinian,” by his own count—that he was willing to fight for their homeland. “It would not be surprising if the Jordanian Government decides to make some moves in the weeks ahead to reduce what the regime sees as its vulnerability,” Burns predicted, and suggested that Saudi and Iraqi troops would be welcomed on Jordanian territory.4
Hussein, indeed, lost no time in making thos
e moves. He ordered the 40th brigade and its 100 Patton tanks to cross the Jordan River near Jericho, thus violating limits placed on their deployment by the Americans. Next, in a placating gesture to Nasser, he removed Wasfi al-Tall, Chief of the Royal Court, from the limelight. “We will watch him like a hawk and sit on him when he goes into orbit,” Touqan confided to Burns. Chief of Staff Khammash, meanwhile, was sent to Cairo, there to confer with UAC Commander ’Ali ‘Ali ‘Amer—Nasser refused to receive him—on Jordan’s role in the coming conflict.
But even as he went on a war footing, Hussein assured the Americans that Jordan had no aggressive intentions toward Israel, and asked them to assure the Israelis as well. But he also warned Washington of the dangers facing Arab moderates should it ally too closely with Israel: “Once Nasser has succeeded in identifying the United States with Israel in this crisis, the United States will be fully compromised,” he said in an oral message to Johnson. “Nasser is clearly striving for this objective and is very close to achieving it.”5
Hussein’s attempts to win Nasser’s favor were not conducted unopposed, however. Several of his closest advisers, led by Tal, tried to warn him of the disastrous consequences of such a course, but their counsel went unheeded. The king was determined to forge an alliance. Hearing that Damascus was still branding him a traitor, he swore to his assistants, “The Syrians will soon find out just who is loyal to the Arab cause and who is a traitor to it.”6
The first to find out, however, was not a Syrian but ‘Uthman Nuri, Egypt’s ambassador to Amman. Invited to Prime Minister Sa‘d Jum‘a’s house on the morning of May 28, Nuri was shocked to discover the king there and to hear his desire to make a top-secret visit to Cairo within the next forty-eight hours. The ambassador rushed to communicate this request to his superiors, and returned after midnight with the answer. If Hussein would pledge to resist any Israeli attempt to attack Syria through Jordan’s territory, and if Iraqi troops were allowed into the West Bank; if Amman would recognize Shuqayri and the PLO as the Palestinians‘ representatives and comply with the Arab boycott of West Germany, then Hussein was welcome. The terms were steep but Hussein accepted them. He would fly to Egypt the following dawn, May 30.
Waiting on the tarmac that day were Touqan and Jum’a, Khammash and Royal Air Force Commander Brig. Salah al-Kurdi. Hussein was in uniform still, bearing the rank of field marshal and toting a .357 Magnum pistol. Running late, he barely had time to sign his powers over to his younger brother, Hassan, before personally piloting his Caravel plane to Al-Maza military air-field near Cairo. There to receive him were no less than four Egyptian vice presidents, Foreign Minister Riad, UAC Chief of Staff Gen. ‘Abd al-Mun’im Riyad, and the secretary-general of the president’s office, ‘Abd al-Majid Farid. Heading this august party was Nasser himself, who, taking the Jordanian’s hand, asked, “Since your visit is a secret, what would happen if we arrested you?” Hussein, unfazed, merely smiled. “The possibility never crossed my mind.”
The entourage proceeded to the Qubbah palace, where it was joined by ‘Amer. Then, the president, the king, and the field marshal adjourned to a separate room for a meeting that went on far longer than planned, through lunch and into the afternoon. “I feel that our nation is facing a fateful responsibility,” Hussein opened, “and that my feelings toward this responsibility are those of every Arab. I know that Jordan is in danger, and know that war with Israel is inevitable.” He blamed the state of Egypt-Jordanian relations on Syria, but said that his forces were ready to defend the Syrians as part of an all-Arab effort that would also protect Jordan. Nasser’s response was broad: “It is necessary to reach a political and military position that will make everyone understand that the Arab nation is capable of uniting in the face of crisis…My original estimate was that we had three or four years before war broke out with Israel, but events have overtaken us.”
But Hussein had not come for general statements; he wanted to close a deal. He told Nasser that he was willing to sign an exact copy of the Egyptian-Syrian defense treaty, and to admit all Arab contingents—Iraqi, Saudi, Syrian, and even Egyptian—to his territory. Nasser did not argue. He instructed Foreign Minister Riad to leave at once for Syria and Iraq to negotiate the rapid dispatch of these forces, including jet fighters to help guard Jordan’s skies. Calls were put in to President ‘Aref in Baghdad, asking for his cooperation, and to Gaza, with instructions to send Shuqayri to Cairo at once. But all these gestures, Hussein would soon learn, came at a considerable price, costlier than that he had already paid coming to Cairo. Now, in addition to reopening the PLO offices in Amman, he would have to place his army—Jordan’s pride—under the command of Gen. Riyad, who was answerable directly to ‘Amer.
The treaty, under which Egypt and Jordan agreed to consider “any armed attack on either state or its forces as an attack on both” and to “take all measure…at their disposal…to repulse that attack,” was signed in the early afternoon. The rest of the day passed pleasantly enough, with tours of airstrips and the new army headquarters at Heliopolis. Maps were perused and briefings heard on the current military situation. Hussein warned his hosts of the perils of a surprise Israeli air attack, but Nasser showed no sign of concern, insisting that the Jews were incapable of mounting such an operation. The combined Arab armies would be victorious in a matter of days, he foresaw, adding that, “if the Americans intervene, I will be quite prepared to ask for Soviet assistance.”
Finally, just before the king’s departure, Ahmad al-Shuqayri was ushered in wearing a rumpled Mao-style uniform and looking disoriented. The PLO Chairman who had recently pledged to lead an army into Amman and “to take no account of Hussein,” now strode up to the monarch, declared him “head of the Palestinians,” and expressed his desire to visit Jordan in the near future. “You’re not going in the near future,” Nasser laughed. “You’re leaving right away!” Then he turned to Hussein: “If he gives you any trouble, throw him into one of your towers and rid me of him!”7
Having, as he told Burns, “shifted the burden of the ‘Palestinian problem’ off his shoulders and onto Nasser’s,” Hussein returned to his kingdom. His reception was tumultuous. The supposedly secret summit with Nasser had been broadcast throughout the region—“The world will know that the Arabs are girded for battle as the fateful hour approaches,” Cairo Radio blared—and greeted with rapturous applause. The car carrying Hussein and Shuqayri was literally lifted into the air. The king was exhausted, spent, “yet never have I seen him so happy and beaming as he was at that hour,” recalled Jum’a. In Cairo, Hussein believed that he had purchased “political and military insurance” for Jordan at a time when the U.S. had refused to guarantee its territory and was instead arming Israel. He also believed that Egypt, while not backing down from its blockade, would not start a war but would wait for the Israelis to strike first and then destroy them. At the very least he had denied Nasser the ability to blame Jordan for failing to join the Arab alliance, irrespective of its fortunes in battle.8
But not all Jordanians celebrated Hussein’s coup. Wasfi al-Tall again came out against the king’s policy, telling him that “I’m ready to kill 2,000 rebels to prevent you from losing the West Bank.” Even among the Palestinians, leaders such as East Jerusalem mayor Anwar al-Khatib and his colleague in Hebron, Muhammad ‘Ali al-Ja’bari, feared that Egypt would drag Jordan into a war in which Israel would surely expand eastward. Critics of the treaty were quick to point out that while strategic decisions were supposed to be decided by a joint defense council until actual war broke out, in reality the Jordanian army was already under Egyptian command. The army did not even have a liaison in Cairo. The treaty also effectively nullified the secret agreement—code name: College Run—through which the United States supplied Jordan with twelve F-104 fighters, anti-aircraft guns, recoilless rifles, and ammunition. Fearing that the weapons would now find their way into Egyptian hands, the U.S. ceased arms shipments to Amman; the planes were removed to Turkey. Findley Burns, observing that �
��the king has opened a Pandora’s box wider than he probably anticipated,” noted how events in Jordan “are alarmingly reminiscent of August 1914.”9
That fact was brought home on June 1 when Gen. Riyad landed in Amman and immediately began inspection of the West Bank’s defenses. His objective was not only to prepare the area for the possibility of Israeli invasion, but to draw the maximum number of enemy troops away from the south, relieving some of the pressure on Egypt. Further help would come from two Egyptian commando battalions, the 53rd and the 33rd, that would be transferred to Jordan with orders to infiltrate and destroy a range of strategic targets in Israel.
The arrival of Riyad and his commandos further inflamed public passions in Jordan, particularly among the Palestinians—passions that Shuqayri was anxious to exploit. Ignoring Hussein’s orders not to leave Amman, he traveled to Jerusalem and there delivered a fiery Friday sermon. The PLO, he pledged, was “prepared to take its place in advance positions on the Jordanian front so it can stand face to face with the Zionist gangs”; that it now possessed ultra-modern weapons that he, himself, would direct. Frenzy erupted in the crowds that gathered to hear him; rioters attacked Western consulates and clashed with soldiers trying to quell them. Still Shuqayri fumed on: “We shall destroy Israel and its inhabitants and as for the survivors—if there are any—the boats are ready to deport them!”10
Eshkol’s Eclipse
Hussein’s alliance with Nasser, a result of Israel’s decision to wait and not to go to war, would increase the pressures on Israel to fight. That pressure was already bursting the evening of May 28, when, after the Cabinet meeting, Eshkol prepared to meet with the general staff. En route to that engagement, however, he made a brief stop at Israel Radio’s studio to address his anxious nation.
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