Lion of Jordan
Page 83
43. Avi Shlaim, Collusion across the Jordan: King Abdullah, the Zionist Movement, and the Partition of Palestine (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988), 141. The Jewish Agency made payments to King Abdullah in the 1930s for the option of a lease on his land in Ghaur al-Kibd – an option that was never exercised. This provided a veneer of legitimacy for what could otherwise be construed as the payment of a political subsidy or bribe. Modest sums of money were also given by Jewish Agency officials to Abdullah in 1946 and 1947 to consolidate the covert relationship with him. Some of Abdullah’s courtiers also received money from the Jewish Agency. Shlaim, Collusion across the Jordan, 50–54, 78–82, 616–17.
44. Moshe Zak, Hussein oseh shalom [Hussein Makes Peace], in Hebrew (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1996), 63.
45. Selwyn Lloyd to Sir Francis Rundall (Tel Aviv), 12 August 1958, FO 371/134285, PRO.
46. Zaki Shalom, The Superpowers, Israel and the Future of Jordan 1960–1963: The Perils of the Pro-Nasser Policy (Brighton: Sussex Academic Press, 1999), Chapter 8.
47. Yaacov Herzog’s papers at the Israel State Archives in Jerusalem have not been declassified under the thirty-year rule because of their special sensitivity. So I am particularly grateful to his daughter, Shira Herzog, for giving me unrestricted access to her father’s private papers.
48. ‘Meeting with Charles’, 24 September 1963, ‘The Private Papers of Yaacov Herzog’, Jerusalem. ‘Charles’ was the code name the Israelis gave to Hussein.
49. Ibid.
50. This is one of the main arguments of Shalom, The Superpowers, Israel and the Future of Jordan.
51. Interview with Major-General Meir Amit.
52. Interview with Adnan Abu-Odeh.
Chapter 10: The Palestinian Challenge
1. J. F. S. Phillips, ‘Jordan 1964: Arma Virumque’, FO 371/180728, Public Record Office (PRO).
2. Malcolm H. Kerr, The Arab Cold War: Gamal Abd al-Nasir and His Rivals 1958–1970, 3rd ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1971), Chapter 4.
3. Avraham Sela, Ahdut betokh perud ba-ma’arekhet habein-arvit: ve’idot ha-pisgah ha-arviyot 1964–1982 [Unity within Disunity in the Inter-Arab System: The Arab Summit Conferences 1964–1982], in Hebrew (Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1982), 1.
4. Moshe Shemesh, The Palestinian Entity 1959–1974: Arab Politics and the PLO, 2nd ed. (London: Frank Cass, 1996), Chapter I.
5. Asher Susser, On Both Banks of the Jordan: A Political Biography of Wasfi al-Tall (London: Frank Cass, 1994), 80.
6. George Ball, acting secretary of state, ‘Memorandum for the President: Your Meeting with King Hussein’, 10 April 1964, NSF Country File, Box 148, Lyndon B. Johnson Library, Austin, Texas (LBJL).
7. R. W. Komer, ‘Memorandum for the President’, 13 April 1964, NSF Country File, Box 148, LBJL.
8. ‘Memorandum of Conversation’, 14 and 15 April 1964, NSF Country File, Box 148, LBJL.
9. ‘Second meeting with Charles’, Part 1, 2 May 1964, ‘The Private Papers of Yaacov Herzog’, Jerusalem.
10. ‘Impressions’, ibid.
11. R. W. Komer, ‘Memorandum for the President’, 9 August 1964 and 1 February 1965, NSF Country File, Box 146, LBJL.
12. The Central Intelligence Agency, ‘Special Report: The Jordan Waters Issue’, NSF Country File, Box 146, LBJL.
13. ‘General Comments of King Husayn on Arab Summit Conference’, NSF Country File, Box 146, LBJL.
14. ‘Third Meeting with Charles’, 19 December 1964, ‘The Private Papers of Yaacov Herzog’. Herzog was an observant Jew and as such he did not permit himself to write on Sabbath because writing constituted work. The notes for his eight-page report on the meeting were made on Saturday night with the help of the host.
15. R. W. Komer, ‘Memorandum for the President’, 3 February 1965, NSF Country File, Box 146, LBJL. Emphasis in the original.
16. R. W. Komer, ‘Memorandum for the President’, 26 January 1965, NSF Country File, Box 146, LBJL. Emphasis in the original.
17. Talbot to Department of State, 8 February 1965, NSF Country File, Box 146, LBJL.
18. Talbot to Department of State, 9 February 1965, NSF Country File, Box 146, LBJL.
19. Yitzhak Rabin, The Rabin Memoirs (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1979), 50–51.
20. R. W. Parkes, ‘Jordan: Annual Review for 1965’, FO 371/186547, PRO.
21. Interview with Mreiwad al-Tall.
22. Interview with Dr Hazem Nusseibeh.
23. Susser, On Both Banks of the Jordan, 82.
24. Dr Yaacov Herzog was not present at the meeting because he was in the throes of a deep psychological crisis triggered by the invitation to become the Chief Rabbi of Britain. When the crisis was over, Levi Eshkol appointed Herzog as a political adviser and later as the director general of his office.
25. Moshe Zak, Hussein oseh shalom [Hussein Makes Peace] in Hebrew (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1996), 79–80.
26. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
27. Zak, Hussein oseh shalom, 79–81.
28. David Shaham, Israel – 40 ha-Shanim [Israel – The 40 Years] in Hebrew (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1991), 215.
29. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
Chapter 11: The Road to War
1. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
2. Interview with Lieutenant-General Itzhak Rabin, Tel Aviv, 22 August 1982.
3. Interview with Miriam Eshkol, London, 12 December 2002.
4. Ze’ev Bar-Lavie, Hamishtar ha-hashemi 1949–1967 ve-ma’amado ba-gada ha-ma’aravit [The Hashemite Regime 1949–1967, and Its Status in the West Bank], in Hebrew (Tel Aviv: The Shiloah Center, 1981), 45–6.
5. Interview with Mreiwad al-Tall.
6. Moshe Shemesh, ‘The IDF Raid on Samu’: The Turning-Point in Jordan’s Relations with Israel and the West Bank Palestinians’, Israel Studies, 7:1 (Spring 2002).
7. Ibid.
8. Undated and unsigned letter, ‘The Private Papers of Yaacov Herzog’, Jerusalem.
9. Ambassador in London to Foreign Ministry, 24 November 1966, ibid.
10. Subject: ‘Jordan’, 12 December 1966, 4094/10, Israel State Archives (ISA).
11. Cable from Ambassador Burns, 13 December 1966, NSF Country File, Box 146, Lyndon B. Johnson Library, Austin, Texas (LBJL).
12. Interview with Richard Viets.
13. Message to King Hussein of Jordan, 23 November 1966, NSF Country File, Box 146, LBJL.
14. Burns to secretary of state with copy to the White House, 11 December 1966, NSF Country File, Box 146, LBJL.
15. Burns to secretary of state, 11 December 1966, NSF Country File, Box 146, LBJL.
16. CIA, ‘The Jordanian Regime: Its Prospects and the Consequences of its Demise’, 13 December 1966, NSF Country File, Box 146, LBJL.
17. Douglas Little, ‘A Puppet in Search of a Puppeteer? The United States, King Hussein and Jordan, 1953–1970’, International History Review, 18:3 (August 1995).
18. Walt Rostow to the president, 22 December 1966, NSF Country File, Box 146, LBJL.
19. Vick Vance and Pierre Lauer, Hussein of Jordan: My ‘War’ with Israel (New York: William Morrow, 1969), 43–53.
20. Samir A. Mutawi, Jordan in the 1967 War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 108–111.
21. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
22. Quoted in Roland Dallas, King Hussein: A Life on the Edge (London: Profile Books, 1999), 105.
23. Quoted in Jeremy Bowen, Six Days: How the 1967 War Shaped the Middle East (London: Simon and Schuster, 2003), 66.
24. Odd Bull, War and Peace in the Middle East: The Experiences and Views of a UN Observer (London: Leo Cooper, 1976), 113.
25. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
26. Dean Rusk, As I Saw It: A Secretary of State’s Memoirs (London: I. B. Tauris, 1991), 331.
27. Abba Eban, An Autobiography (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1978), 408.
28. Vance and Lauer, Hussein of Jordan: My ‘War’ with Israel, 68–7
0. Hussein refused to discuss this incident in his extensive interviews with Vance and Lauer.
29. Richard Helms, A Look Over My Shoulder: A Life in the Central Intelligence Agency (New York: Random House, 2003), 303–04.
30. Ezer Weizman, On Eagles’ Wings: The Personal Story of the Leading Commander of the Israeli Air Force (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1976), 242–3.
31. Interview with Moshe Sasson.
32. Vance and Lauer, Hussein of Jordan: My ‘War’ with Israel, 95–6. The main reason Hussein believed this charge was because, as he later admitted, the technical side of Jordanian intelligence during the war was very poor.
33. Ibid., 88–93.
34. Moshe Zak, Hussein oseh shalom [Hussein Makes Peace], in Hebrew (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1996), 117–18.
35. Mutawi, Jordan in the 1967 War, 139–40; Vance and Lauer, Hussein of Jordan: My ‘War’ with Israel, 95–6.
36. Tom Segev, 1967: ve-ha’aretz shinta et paneha [1967: And the Land was Transformed] in Hebrew (Jerusalem: Keter, 2005), 377–8.
37. Zak, Hussein oseh shalom, 118.
38. Segev, 1967, 378.
39. Vance and Lauer, Hussein of Jordan: My ‘War’ with Israel, 65.
40. Remez to Levavi, 7 June 1967, ‘Hussein’, ‘The Private Papers of Yaacov Herzog’, Jerusalem.
41. Remez and Admoni to Levavi, 7 June 1967, ibid.
42. ‘A Conversation between Jock Smith and Naftali Kenan’, 7 June 1967, 5.30, ibid.
43. Vance and Lauer, Hussein of Jordan: My ‘War’ with Israel, 97.
Chapter 12: Picking Up the Pieces
1. Samir A. Mutawi, Jordan in the 1967 War (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987), 164.
2. Amman to FO, 17 July 1967, PREM, 13/1622, Public Record Office (PRO).
3. Lawrence Tal, Politics, the Military, and National Security in Jordan 1955–1967 (Basing-stoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2002), 120–21.
4. Mahmoud Riad, The Struggle for Peace in the Middle East (London: Quartet, 1981), 46.
5. Reuven Pedatzur, ‘Coming Back Full Circle: The Palestinian Option in 1967’, Middle East Journal, 49:2 (Spring 1995).
6. Oxford doctoral thesis in progress by Avi Raz, ‘The Palestinian Option: Israel and the West Bank Leadership 1967–1969’. I am grateful to Mr Raz for sharing with me some of his primary sources for the thesis.
7. Yaacov Herzog’s diary, 15 June 1967, 4511A/3, Israel State Archives (ISA).
8. Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israelandthe Arab World (New York: W. W. Norton, 2000), 253–5.
9. Reuven Pedatzur, ‘The June Decision was Cancelled in October’, Ha’aretz, 12 May 1995.
10. Foreign Relations of the United States 1964–1968. Volume XIX. Arab-Israeli Crisis and War 1967 (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing House, 2004), 577–80.
11. Ibid., 583–5.
12. Yaacov Herzog’s diary, 2 July 1967, 4511A/3, ISA.
13. ‘Meeting with Charles on Sunday, July 2nd, from 8.10 p.m. to 9.45 p.m.’, ‘The Private Papers of Yaacov Herzog’, Jerusalem.
14. Michael Bar-Zohar, Khayav ve-moto shel nasikh yehudi: biographia shel Yaacov Herzog [The Life and Times of a Jewish Prince: A Biography of Yaacov Herzog], in Hebrew (Tel Aviv: Yediot Aharonot, 2003), 283–4. Tom Segev, 1967: ve-ha’aretz shinta et paneha [1967: And the Land was Transformed], in Hebrew (Jerusalem: Keter, 2005), 536.
15. Yaacov Herzog’s diary, 7 July 1967, 4511A/3, ISA.
16. Foreign Office, 30 June 1967, ‘Visit of King Hussein: Brief for Prime Minister and Secretary of State’, FCO 17/240, PRO.
17. ‘Record of Conversation between the Prime Minister and the King of Jordan at No. 10 Downing Street at 2.30 p.m. on Monday, July 3, 1967’, FCO 17/240, PRO.
18. Addendum to ‘Meeting with Charles on Sunday, July 2nd, from 8.10 p.m. to 9.45 p.m.’, ‘The Private Papers of Yaacov Herzog’, Jerusalem.
19. Amman to FO, 17 July 1967, PREM, 13/1622, PRO.
20. Dean Rusk, ‘Memorandum for the President’, 20 July 1967, NSF Country File, Middle East, Box 113, Lyndon B. Johnson Library, Austin, Texas (LBJL); London to secretary of state, 22 July 1967, and Amman to secretary of state, 4 August 1967, POL 27–14 ARAB-ISR, United States National Archives, Washington, DC (USNA).
21. Amman to secretary of state, 26 July 1967, NSF Country File, Middle East, Box 113, LBJL.
22. Abdel Majid Farid, Nasser: The Final Years (Reading: Ithaca Press, 1994), 51–67.
23. Yoram Meital, ‘The Khartoum Conference and Egyptian Policy after the 1967 War: A Re-examination’, Middle East Journal, 54:1 (Winter 2000).
24. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
25. Meital, ‘The Khartoum Conference and Egyptian Policy after the 1967 War: A Re-examination’.
26. Robert Stephens, Nasser: A Political Biography (London: Allen Lane, 1971), 523.
27. Amman to FO, 8 September 1967, PREM, 13/1623, PRO; and undated report on plain paper ‘Highlights of the Khartoum Conference from King Husayn on 2 September’. The name of the author is not given but it was most probably Jack O’Connell, the CIA station chief in Amman. NSF Country File, Middle East, Box 113, LBJL.
28. Amman to secretary of state, 4 September 1967, POL 27–14 ARAB-ISR, USNA.
29. Baruch Gilead to Foreign Ministry, 16 October 1967, 3835/5, ISA.
30. Amman to FO, 7 October 1967, FCO 17/550, PRO.
31. King Hussein to President Johnson, 7 October 1967, NSF Special Heads of State Correspondence, Box 31, LBJL.
32. Foreign Relations of the United States 1964–1968. Volume XIX. Arab-Israeli Crisis and War 1967, 1004–6, 1012–16.
33. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
34. ‘A Special Chapter on Charles, dictated on 3.11.67’, ‘The Private Papers of Yaacov Herzog’, Jerusalem.
35. ‘Two Meetings with Charles (on the morning of November 19th and on the morning of November 20th respectively)’, ibid.
36. Herzog to prime minister, 21 November 1967, ibid.
37. Avi Shlaim, ‘Interview with Abba Eban, 11 March 1976’, Israel Studies, 8:1 (Spring 2003).
38. Helena Cobban, The Palestinian Liberation Organisation: People, Power and Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1984), 38–9.
39. CIA, ‘Jordanian Ex-prime minister Wasfi Tal’s Policy Proposals for Countering the Arab Defeat and Its Consequences in Jordan’, 13 September 1967, NSF Country File, Box 147, LBJL.
40. Douglas Little, ‘A Puppet in Search of a Puppeteer? The United States, King Hussein and Jordan 1953–1970’ , International History Review, 18:3 (August 1995).
41. ‘Jordan and the Fedayeen’, 5 December 1967, 3835/5, ISA.
42. Cobban, The Palestinian Liberation Organisation, 41–2.
43. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
Chapter 13: Dialogue across the Battle Lines
1. Interview with Zaid Rifa’i.
2. ‘Record of Meeting held on 3.5.68’, ‘The Private Papers of Yaacov Herzog’, Jerusalem.
3. ‘Two talks with Z.R., 5 and 6 May 1968’ and ‘Protocol of the Ministerial Defence Committee with the participation of all the members of the cabinet, 8 May 1968’, Ibid.
4. ‘Protocol of the Ministerial Defence Committee with the participation of all the members of the cabinet, 8 May 1968’, ibid.
5. Herzog to Eban, 19 June 1968, ibid.
6. The proposed procedure reflected the Israeli diplomat’s penchant for precision and his love of cloak-and-dagger operations. The Israeli boat using beams, was to signal in Morse code the word ‘Musa’ – the code for Jordan. Musa was to reply ‘Davis’ – the code for Herzog. The signals were to be repeated until the boats joined. Musa was then to follow the instructions given by Davis in English. This was Arrangement A. Arrangement B was to meet in London at a date to be confirmed. Paper headed ‘Arrangement A, Arrangement B’, ibid.
7. ‘Conversations with Charles and his adviser on 22nd and 24th August [1968]’, ibid.
8. Abba Eban, Pers
onal Witness: Israel through My Eyes (New York: Putnam’s, 1992), 496–8.
9. Harrison M. Symmes to secretary of state, 20 March 1968, NSF Country File, Box 147, Lyndon B. Johnson Library, Austin, Texas (LBJL).
10. Walt Rostow to President Johnson, 31 May 1968, NSF Country File, Box 148, LBJL.
11. Interview with Zaid Rifa’i.
12. Reuven Pedatzur, ‘The Circle Closes’, Ha’aretz, 10 November 1995.
13. ‘Memorandum of Conversation’, 4 June 1968, POL 27–14 ARAB-ISR, United States National Archives, Washington, DC (USNA).
14. Amman to secretary of state, 20 July 1968, NSF Country File, Box 147, LBJL.
15. Moshe Zak, Hussein oseh shalom [Hussein Makes Peace], in Hebrew (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1996), 44.
16. Yaacov Herzog’s diary, 10 July 1968, A4511/4, Israel State Archives (ISA).
17. Zak, Hussein oseh shalom, 155.
18. Thomas Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalem (London: Fontana Books, 1990), 261.
19. Interview with Moshe Sasson.
20. ‘General Objectives and Atmosphere’ [n.d.], ‘The Private Papers of Yaacov Herzog’, Jerusalem.
21. Yaacov Herzog’s report to the cabinet, 6 October 1968, ibid.
22. Abba Eban, An Autobiography (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1978), 446.
23. Eban to Eshkol, 29 September 1968, ‘The Private Papers of Yaacov Herzog’, Jerusalem.
24. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
25. The above account is based on five documents written by Dr Yaacov Herzog, and especially his notes on the cabinet meeting of 27 October 1968, ‘The Private Papers of Yaacov Herzog’, Jerusalem.
26. ‘Speaking Notes for Use with Mr Rusk on 4 November 1968’ [no author], NSF Country File, Box 148, LBJL.
27. Reuven Pedatzur, ‘And This is the History of Gaza since ’67’, Ha’aretz, 7 November 2003.
28. ‘Meeting Held on November 19, 1968’, ‘The Private Papers of Yaacov Herzog’, Jerusalem.
29. Harrison M. Symmes to secretary of state, 17 September 1968, NSF Country File, Box 147, LBJL.
30. Harrison M. Symmes to secretary of state, 9 December 1968, NSF Country File, Box 148, LBJL.