Lion of Jordan
Page 86
16. According to one friend, a wealthy Arab businessman, Hussein deeply yearned for the restoration of the Hashemite monarchy in Iraq. The friend was Hany Salaam, the father-in-law of Prince Talal bin Muhammad, Hussein’s favourite nephew and national security adviser. Talal was married to Ghida, and both were close to Hussein and to Queen Noor. According to Salaam, Hussein and Saddam were very close, and Hussein hoped to become the dominant figure in the relationship. A long-term ambition that Hussein very rarely talked about was to regain Iraq for the Hashemite dynasty. He also had a candidate in mind for the Iraqi throne: Talal bin Muhammad, although Hussein did not broach the subject with Talal. Salaam further relates that Hussein was not altogether surprised by Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait. Hussein thought he could deter Saddam from resorting to force, but he overestimated his influence over him. Even after the invasion, Hussein continued to think that the Americans would not act and that Saddam would be the winner in the end. Hussein thought that Iraq would emerge from the conflict as the dominant power in the Gulf and that Jordan would benefit from the change in the regional balance of power. This is why he did not break with Saddam in the early phase of the crisis. Salaam himself considered all these ideas to be unrealistic. But he had no doubt that Hussein was serious about his secret agenda of preparing the ground for a Jordanian takeover of Iraq. Conversation with Hany Salaam, London, 26 November 2002. I have no firm evidence either to confirm or to contradict this account of what went on in Hussein’s mind during the Gulf conflict. I simply report it here for what it is worth.
17. Interview with Prince El Hassan bin Talal. In retrospect, Prince Hassan rather wished that his brother had sacked him over this policy issue then and there and spared him the hurt and humiliation of the final dismissal as crown prince.
18. Jordan, White Paper, 6.
19. Heikal, Illusions of Triumph, 291.
20. Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, 348–9.
21. Interview with Sharif Zaid bin Shaker.
22. Bush and Scowcroft, A World Transformed, 340, 347–8.
23. Heikal, Illusions of Triumph, 320.
24. Adiba Mango, ‘Jordan on the Road to Peace 1988–1999’ (unpublished D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 2002), 68–9.
25. ‘Documents from PLG’s trip to Jordan in January 1991’, ‘The Papers of Philip Geyelin’.
26. Interview with Sir Roger Tomkys.
27. Heikal, Illusions of Triumph, 321.
28. Interview with Adnam Abu-Odeh. Of course Queen Victoria would have treated an Indian maharaja with exemplary courtesy.
29. Efraim Halevy, Man in the Shadows: Inside the Middle East Crisis with the Man Who Led the Mossad (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2006), 27.
30. Ibid., 27–8.
31. Noor, Leap of Faith, 312–13.
32. Jordan, White Paper.
33. Interview with Sharif Zaid bin Shaker.
34. Interview with Hasan Abu-Nimah.
35. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
36. Ibid.
37. Interview with Adnan Abu-Odeh.
38. Interview with King Abdullah bin Hussein.
39. Khaled bin Sultan and Patrick Seale, Desert Warrior: A Personal View of the Gulf War by the Joint Forces Commander (London: HarperCollins, 1995), 181.
40. Ibid., 210.
41. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal. The 400,000 refugees from Kuwait included Palestinians and other Arabs, mainly Syrian and Iraqi Bedouins, who had no citizenship rights. Bidun literally means ‘without’. The actual number of refugees was closer to 300,000 then to 400,000.
42. Adam Garfinkle, Israel and Jordan in the Shadow of War: Functional Ties and Futile Diplomacy in a Small Place (London: Macmillan, 1992), 173.
43. Yitzhak Shamir, Summing Up: An Autobiography (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1994), 218–19.
44. Halevy, Man in the Shadows, 29–30.
45. Interview with Adnan Abu-Odeh.
46. Interview with Ali Shukri.
47. Moshe Zak, Hussein oseh shalom [Hussein Makes Peace], in Hebrew (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1996), 35–6, 47–50, 227–8.
48. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
49. Interview with Sharif Zaid bin Shaker.
50. Noor, Leap of Faith, 324.
51. Halevy, Man in the Shadows, 31–2.
52. Interview with Dan Meridor.
53. Interview with Ali Shukri.
54. The 50 Years War, transcript of interview for six-part BBC television series, Middle East Centre Archive, St Antony’s College, Oxford (1998), King Hussein, 2 March 1997.
55. Interview with Dan Meridor.
56. Interview with King Abdullah bin Hussein.
57. Interview with Sharif Zaid bin Shaker.
58. Interview with King Abdullah bin Hussein.
59. Uri Avnery, ‘In Israel, Reckless Talk about Jordan’, International Herald Tribune, 7 September 1990; and Ze’ev Schiff, Ha’aretz, 3 March 1991.
60. Jordan, White Paper, 61–6.
Chapter 24: From Madrid to Oslo
1. Queen Noor, Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2003), 341.
2. Adiba Mango, ‘Jordan on the Road to Peace 1988–1999’ (unpublished D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 2002), 94.
3. James A. Baker III, The Politics of Diplomacy: Revolution, War and Peace, 1989–1992 (New York: Putnam’s, 1995), 450–51.
4. Mango, ‘Jordan on the Road to Peace 1988–1999’, 102.
5. Baker III, The Politics of Diplomacy, 451.
6. Ibid., 464–5.
7. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
8. Baker III, The Politics of Diplomacy, 423–5.
9. Interview with Dr Musa al-Keilani.
10. Interview with Dan Meridor.
11. Mango, ‘Jordan on the Road to Peace 1988–1999’, 105.
12. Baker III, The Politics of Diplomacy, 469.
13. Interview with Taher al-Masri.
14. Interview with Dr Musa Braizat.
15. Hanan Ashrawi, This Side of Peace: A Personal Account (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995), 122–4.
16. Interviews with Musa Braizat and Awn Khasawneh.
17. Chris Hedges, ‘For King Hussein, a Last Shot at Peace’, International Herald Tribune, 31 October 1991.
18. Interview with Adnan Abu-Odeh.
19. Mango, ‘Jordan on the Road to Peace 1988–1999’, 118–19.
20. Interview with Taher al-Masri.
21. Elyakim Rubinstein, lecture, 12 October 2001, ‘The Peace between Israel and Jordan -Chapters in its Making’, in Hebrew. I am grateful to Supreme Court Judge Elyakim Rubinstein for putting the text of his lecture at my disposal.
22. Mango, ‘Jordan on the Road to Peace 1988–1999’, 153.
23. Interview with Kamel Abu Jaber.
24. Noor, Leap of Faith, 351–3. ‘Sidi’ is a term of respect that is much less formal than ‘His Majesty’. Hussein was usually called ‘Sayidna’, or ‘our master’, by those who were close to him, and he himself always referred to his younger brother respectfully as ‘Sidi Hassan’.
25. Mahmoud Abbas, Through Secret Channels (Reading: Garnet, 1995), 187.
26. Interview with Wesley Egan.
27. Nora Boustany, ‘King Hussein Fears Prospects for Peace Could Raise Premature Hope in Jordan’, International Herald Tribune, 18–19 September 1993.
28. Efraim Halevy, Man in the Shadows: Inside the Middle East Crisis with the Man Who Led the Mossad (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2006), 49.
29. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
30. Noor, Leap of Faith, 361.
31. The 50 Years War, transcript of interview for six-part BBC television series, Middle East Centre Archive, St Antony’s College, Oxford (1998), King Hussein, 2 March 1997, 80.
32. Interviews with Fayez Tarawneh and Marwan Muasher.
33. Interview with Adnan Abu-Odeh.
34. Jerrold Kessel, ‘Rabin Soothes K
ing at Secret Meeting’, Guardian, 29 September 1993.
35. Noor, Leap of Faith, 364.
36. Jerrold Kessel, ‘Rabin Soothes King at Secret Meeting’, Guardian, 29 September 1993.
37. Interview with Ali Shukri.
38. Elyakim Rubinstein, ‘The Peace Treaty with Jordan’, in Hebrew, Hamishpat, 6 (December 1995).
39. Interview with Taher al-Masri.
40. Interview with Shimon Peres.
41. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
42. Interview with Prince El Hassan bin Talal.
43. Uri Savir, The Process: 1,100 Days that Changed the Middle East (New York: Random House, 1998), 84.
44. Shalom Yerushalmi, ‘Jordan: Before the Peace’, Ma’ariv, 10 November 1993.
45. Interview with Shimon Peres.
46. Interview with Eitan Haber; and Halevy, Man in the Shadows, 50–51.
47. Under the old system, each voter could cast the number of votes corresponding to the deputies to be returned from the country’s multi-member constituencies. Under the amended system, each voter could cast only a single vote.
Chapter 25: Peace Treaty
1. Ari Shavit, ‘Smiley Stopped Smiling: An Interview with Efraim Halevy’, Ha’aretz, 5 September 2003.
2. Moshe Zak, Hussein oseh shalom [Hussein Makes Peace], in Hebrew (Ramat-Gan: Bar-Ilan University Press, 1996), 293–4.
3. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
4. Interview with Professor Itamar Rabinovich.
5. Efraim Halevy, Man in the Shadows: Inside the Middle East Crisis with the Man Who Led the Mossad (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2006), 87–8.
6. Dennis Ross, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004), 174–7.
7. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
8. Queen Noor, Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2003), 368–9.
9. Interview with Taher al-Masri.
10. Ibid.
11. Ibid.
12. Interview with Adnan Abu-Odeh.
13. Interview with Professor Itamar Rabinovich; and Halevy, Man in the Shadows, 101.
14. Noor, Leap of Faith, 374–7.
15. Interview with Awn Khasawneh.
16. Halevy, Man in the Shadows, 111.
17. Munther J. Haddadin, Diplomacy on the Jordan: International Conflict and Negotiated Resolution (Boston: Kluwer Academic, 2002), 379.
18. Interview with Dr Munther Haddadin.
19. David Horovitz, ed., Yitzhak Rabin: Soldier of Peace (London: Peter Halban, 1996), 129; and David Makovsky, Making Peace with the PLO: The Rabin Government’s Road to the Oslo Accord (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996), 158–60.
20. Interview with Awn Khasawneh.
21. Interview with Hasan Abu-Nimah.
22. Shimon Shamir, ‘Three Years after the Signature of the Peace Treaty with Jordan: The Desert is Still Arid’, Ha’aretz, 22 October 1997.
23. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
24. Interview with Awn Khasawneh.
25. Elyakim Rubinstein, lecture, 12 October 2001, ‘The Peace between Israel and Jordan -Chapters in Its Making’, in Hebrew. I am grateful to Supreme Court Judge Elyakim Rubinstein for putting the text of his lecture at my disposal.
26. Marc Lynch, State Interests and Public Spheres: The International Politics of Jordan’s Identity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 184.
27. Asher Susser, The Jordanian-Israeli Peace Negotiations: The Geopolitical Rationale of a Bilateral Relationship. Davis Occasional Papers, No. 73 (Jerusalem: Leonard Davis Institute for International Relations, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1999), 22–3.
28. Interview with Marwan Muasher.
Chapter 26: The King’s Peace
1. Marc Lynch, State Interests and Public Spheres: The International Politics of Jordan’s Identity (New York: Columbia University Press, 1999), 180.
2. Marwan Muasher, ‘Jordan and the Peace Process’, Peacewatch, 99, (Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 19 June 1996).
3. Ami Ayalon and Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, eds., Middle East Contemporary Survey. Volume XVIII: 1994 (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1996), 439.
4. Interview with Dr Hani Mulki.
5. Interview with Rajai Muasher.
6. Interview with Marwan Muasher.
7. Ibid.
8. Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, ed., Middle East Contemporary Survey. Volume XIX: 1995 (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1997), 74–5.
9. Hans Blix, Disarming Iraq: The Search for Weapons of Mass Destruction (London: Bloomsbury, 2004), 29, 71, 240.
10. Interview with Ali Shukri.
11. Interview with Prince Talal bin Muhammad.
12. Adiba Mango, ‘Jordan on the Road to Peace 1988–1999’ (unpublished D.Phil. thesis, University of Oxford, 2002), 213–14.
13. Ibid.
14. King Hussein to Ezer Weizman, 5 November 1995, ‘The Private Papers of General Ali Shukri’, Amman.
15. Fouad Ajami, The Dream Palace of the Arabs: A Generation’s Odyssey (New York: Pantheon Books, 1998), 294–5.
16. Randa Habib, ‘La Mort de Hussein, Celle de Rabin: Enterre-t-on la Paix?’ Unpublished manuscript. I am grateful to Randa Habib for allowing me to quote from the manuscript of her forthcoming book.
17. Dennis Ross, The Missing Peace: The Inside Story of the Fight for Middle East Peace (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2004), 214–15.
18. Secret – Immediate, Report No. 8592, 4 December 1995, ‘Jordan/Threat to the Life of King Hussein’, ‘The Private papers of General Ali Shukri’.
19. Interview with Ali Shukri.
20. Secret – Immediate, Report No. 9101, 20 December 1995, ‘Iraq/ Attack Intentions in Jordan’, ‘The Private Papers of General Ali Shukri’.
21. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
22. Mango, ‘Jordan on the Road to Peace 1988–1999’, 218–19.
23. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
24. Itamar Rabinovich, Waging Peace: Israel and the Arabs at the End of the Century (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999), 99.
25. Interview with Ali Shukri.
26. Interview with Marwan Muasher.
Chapter 27: Collision Course
1. Avi Shlaim, The Iron Wall: Israel and the Arab World (New York: W. W. Norton, 2000), Chapter 15.
2. Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, ed., Middle East Contemporary Survey. Volume XX: 1996 (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1998), 437–8.
3. Laura Zittrain Eisenberg and Neil Caplan, Negotiating Arab-Israeli Peace: Patterns, Problems, Possibilities (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1998), 149.
4. Briefing notes of Ali Shukri, 20.45, 28 September 1996, ‘The Private Papers of General Ali Shukri’, Amman.
5. Efraim Halevy, Man in the Shadows: Inside the Middle East Crisis with the Man Who Led the Mossad (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2006), 147–8.
6. Interview with King Hussein bin Talal.
7. Queen Noor, Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2003), 392–3.
8. Roland Dallas, King Hussein: A Life on the Edge (London: Profile Books, 1999), 232.
9. David Hirst, ‘Arabs to Shun Israel at Economic Summit’, Guardian, 13 November 1996.
10. King Hussein to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, 9 March 1997, ‘The Private Papers of General Ali Shukri’.
11. Interview with Ali Shukri.
12. Jordan Times, 13 March 1997.
13. Interview with Ihsan Shurdom.
14. Noor, Leap of Faith, 396.
15. President Ezer Weizman to His Majesty, King Hussein bin Talal, 27 April 1998, ‘The Private Papers of General Ali Shukri’.
16. Ze’ev Schiff, ‘The Government against the Intelligence’, Ha’aretz, 26 September 1997.
17. Noor, Leap of Faith, 397.
18. Halevy, Man in the Shadows, 164–75; Patrick Cockburn, ‘Bibi Netanyahu’s failed bi
d to emulate King Claudius’, Independent, 10 October 1997; Interview with Ali Shukri.
19. Halevy, Man in the Shadows, 164–75.
20. Elyakim Rubinstein, unpublished text of a lecture, 12 October 2001, ‘The Peace between Israel and Jordan – Chapters in Its Making’, in Hebrew.
21. Ali Shukri’s notes, 28 September 1997, ‘The Private Papers of General Ali Shukri’.
22. Assaf Carmel, ‘Arik Sent Me’, Ha’aretz, 25 February 2005.
23. Ali Shukri’s notes, 28 September 1997, ‘The Private Papers of General Ali Shukri’.
24. Assaf Carmel, ‘Arik Sent Me’, Ha’aretz, 25 February 2005.
25. Ze’ev Schiff, ‘A Flaw in Strategic Thinking’, Ha’aretz, 14 November 1997.
26. Interview with Ali Shukri.
27. Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, ed., Middle East Contemporary Survey. Volume XXI: 1997 (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2000), 94.
28. Noor, Leap of Faith, 393–4.
29. Interview with Dr Mustafa Hamarneh.
30. Robert Satloff, ‘The King is Back… and “Final Status” Talks May Be Just Round the Corner’, 10 December 1997, Peacewatch/Policywatch: Anthology 1997, compiled and edited by Elyse Aronson and Monica Neal (Washington, DC: Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1998), 283–5.
31. Doron Rosenblum, ‘A Little Anthology of Blindness and Eye-opening’, Ha’aretz, 12 February 2004.
32. Smadar Peri, ‘The King and I: An Exclusive Interview with Ali Shukri’, Yediot Aharonot, 1 October 1999.
33. Bruce Maddy-Weitzman, ed., Middle East Contemporary Survey. Volume XXII: 1998 (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2001), 77.
34. Interview with Ali Shukri.
35. Ali Shukri’s notes, 11 February 1998, ‘The Private Papers of General Ali Shukri’. The conversation was in English and Ali Shukri’s notes are also in English except for three words – ‘very nasty person’ – which are written in Arabic in brackets.
36. Noor, Leap of Faith, 400.
37. Ibid., 400
Chapter 28: The Last Journey
1. Queen Noor, Leap of Faith: Memoirs of an Unexpected Life (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2003), 424.