Years of Upheaval by Henry Kissinger

Author:Henry Kissinger [Unknown]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, pdf
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2011-05-23T22:00:00+00:00

Amman

THESE Egyptian and Israeli exchanges had to be conducted from the various far-flung capitals to which I was making flying visits. My first stop after Egypt, on November 8, was Jordan. It was quite a transition from cosmopolitan Cairo to dusty Amman, clinging to the hills on the east bank of the Jordan River, from which on clear nights one can see the lights of Jerusalem. The arrival gave me another opportunity to practice the reviewing of troops. This time I managed to slow my pace to that of my escort officer, though the art of moving in rhythm with the band’s music still eluded me.

We were driven to the King’s palace, which by royal standards in the Middle East was modest indeed. The King greeted us with his accustomed courtesy and the comradeship that at that time still informed the relations between our countries. It was one of our sorrows that our best Arab friend was only at the periphery of this phase of the peace process. Having stayed out of the war (except for a brigade in Syria), he had no cease-fire line to stabilize. Having remained friendly to us (and because of the historic quarrel of the Hashemites with the Saudi dynasty), he had no oil pressures invoked on his behalf. The result was that the conversation was confined to abstractions or recollections.

Hussein deplored the sequence of events that had led to the war, the timing of which, he said, had taken him by surprise. He stated his dilemma accurately:

Jordan is the Arab country most involved in terms of both land and population. Participation in the war could have led to the destruction of Jordan and the creation of a vacuum which radical elements would have filled. Non-participation could have led to the total isolation of Jordan and to our becoming the scapegoat.

It was an acute analysis. Unfortunately, the middle road provided few incentives for outside support — and as the peace process reached the Palestinian issue, Jordan’s unique role would become increasingly crucial. Hussein summed it up as follows:

Our situation is different from that of Syria and Egypt, which are not connected with the Palestinian problem and which already had international boundaries before the 1967 war. Jordan’s 1967 border was the armistice demarcation line. The West Bank is both Jordanian territory and part of Palestine. The population is Jordanian and Palestinian. The rights of the Palestinians have to do not with the West Bank and Jordan but with Israel. The question is who represents the Palestinians. Our position is that the West Bank is Jordanian-Palestinian territory occupied by Israel. It is Jordan’s duty to recover that territory with minor changes on a reciprocal basis. In addition, we cannot give up responsibility for the Moslem and Christian parts of Jerusalem which should, however, remain a unified city.

In short, Hussein rejected a role for the PLO on the West Bank as firmly as Israel. If Palestinian territory was to be recovered for the Arab nation, Jordan, according to the King, should do the negotiating.

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