“Not wise.” This was how Premier Menachem Begin today described Jordan’s increasingly high profile support for Iraq in the current Persian Gulf war.
Addressing a high school audience in Bet Shemesh, a development town near Jerusalem, Begin compared King Hussein’s decision to side with Iraq now to his decision in 1967 to come into the war against. Israel on the side of Egypt. “We all know what happened then,” Begin observed.
Hussein had “jumped on the bandwagon” in 1967 because Egypt’s army had given misleading reports of the first hours of the fighting to President Nasser, and Hussein had relied on these reports, Begin recalled.
Referring to Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s declaration that the road from Abadan leads to Jaffa. Begin said: “Let him just try that road …. We shall show him where it ends. The same applies to Jordan’s Hussein who has said that Iraq’s victory will pave the way to victory in Palestine.”
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