King Hussein’s Mistake–overkill

The current wave of fighting in Jordan has placed King Hussein’s regime-in spite of his military successes-in a much more difficult political position than during the civil war last September. At that time there were 10,000 terrorists active in Jordan which faced the additional threat of a total confrontation with Syria and Iraq. Today, no more than 3,000 terrorists are in Jordan. But last September Gamal Abdel Nasser brought his powerful personal influence to bear on them. Today there is no one to restrain them. As a result, the Jordanian regime is now both isolated and maligned, more than ever in the past. This time the fighting broke out in the northern area of the kingdom, the most rebellious of the country. The terrorists strengthened their hold over the northern towns of Jarash and Irbid, whereupon the Jordanian Army took measures to expel them. Residents of the West Bank who have returned from visits to Jordan, say King Hussein made the mistake of overkill. This mistake was aggravated by his awkward, political situations: on the one hand there has been a rapprochement between Egypt and the terrorist organizations (one indication of this is the resumption of terrorist broadcasts from Cairo which had been stopped under Abdel Nasser); on the other hand, both Kuwait and Libya have suspended their subsidy payments to Jordan which amounted to $84 million a year.

Militarily the Jordanian Army gains the upper hand in every engagement and progressively secures control of the Palestinian refugee camps (which are the centres of terrorist agitation and armed resistance). This applies in particular to the large “Azza” camp near Jarash where most of the fighting is now raging. The terrorists are now trying to apply guerrilla tactics against Jordan such as blowing up culverts, mining roads, sabotaging equipment and terror. This method shows that the terrorists realize their utter helplessness in the face of Jordan’s tanks and artillery. But all this plays havoc with King Hussein’s image and political strength. Cairo denounces him as “the liquidator of the Palestinian resistance movement.” In recent days Hussein has been trying to defend himself by accusing the small Marxist extremist “Democratic Front” headed by Naif Hawatmeh, of provoking the unrest.

But the leaders of the more powerful terror groups, Yasser Arafat and George Habash today (April sixth) announced that they have deployed their forces along the Syrian borders in order to assist their comrades in northern Jordan. King Hussein has lately been trying to divert world attention from events in the north of his country by widespread political action over the situation in Israeli-held East Jerusalem and the building projects Israel is carrying out there. In Israel itself the events in Jordan have not yet produced much reaction, mainly because up till now there has been no indication of a possible military intervention by Syria or other countries. Furthermore Israel realizes that in spite of his troubled relations with his own population, King Hussein’s military superiority is not in doubt: there is not the least sign at this stage the Hashemite dynasty has to fight for its survival. Nor is there any danger as there was last September that part of the kingdom might secede and turn into a terrorist bastion.