6/26/2023 0 Comments Jordan todoeyIn 1994, he signed a peace agreement with Israel and established the definitive borders of the Hashemite kingdom of Jordan. King Hussein restored parliamentary life in Jordan at a time when the Cold War was ending. That role is alive today and will soon be evidenced and tested by events in the region, especially in Syria. King Hussein created a role for Jordan in the region. Most other Arab countries waited for the 1987 Amman summit to take the same path. He played the most prominent role in bringing Egypt back to the Arab League when he restored relations with it in 1985. Had he not been a real leader, he wouldn’t have taken the decision to disengage from the West Bank in 1988 and thus draw the borders of an independent Palestinian state. King Hussein was also a man of the street. He surpassed the 1970 clashes with the Palestinians, even though the latter had assassinated Wasfi Tal, one of the most prominent Jordanian figures. He was able at some point to surpass the crimes of a gang of ignorant Iraqi Army officers when they staged a coup on July 14, 1958, and killed members of the Hashemite family in Iraq. Putting these two major events aside, King Hussein was always farsighted. The late Jordanian monarch had his own considerations in the absence of public awareness of the consequences of starting a war with Israel or of avoiding condemning the crimes of the Iraqi regime in Kuwait. The first time was when the kingdom was forced to get involved in the 1967 war and the second was when Jordan avoided taking a clear stand against Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait in the summer of 1990. On the two occasions when he followed the popular demands expressed on the streets of Amman, Jordan paid a heavy price. King Hussein was not just an exceptional king by his humane qualities. The Palestinian guerrillas had gone beyond the limits of decency and tried to touch all the kingdom’s state institutions. King Hussein was certainly not happy when, in 1970, he had to expel armed Palestinian guerrillas from Jordan to save his throne and his country and avoid providing a free service to Israel. He tried to connect Jordanians and the Arabs in general with their future. He shouldered a heavy load of responsibilities and vicissitudes, too heavy for a normal human being to bear.Īs king, Hussein did his best to uphold the principles of humanity in all his actions. Hussein bin Talal became king of Jordan at the age of 17 in 1952 and served until his death February 7, 1999. It is enough honours for the late king that Jordan became, during his rule, a haven for every Arab who needed a place to live because of either Israeli aggression or demographic pressure inside the Palestinian territories. King Hussein’s biography concentrates the tragedy of the Arab Orient, which is paying the price of not listening to him almost half a century ago. Despite it all, the West Bank and Jerusalem were lost to the Israeli occupiers. While other Arab leaders had only bombastic speeches to offer the Palestinian cause, King Hussein gave his country and his people to the Palestinians. King Hussein lived for his country and in the service of his country and the service of what, until recently, was known as the Arabs’ first cause - the Palestinian cause. The Middle East and the Arab world did not do justice to King Hussein when he was alive but the late king was vindicated after his death. King Abdullah II has continued his father’s project and led the Hashemite kingdom to safer waters despite the new challenges and risks facing his kingdom today. Israel tried hard to push that option but King Hussein squashed it. He saved them at a certain stage when the option of an alternative homeland for the Palestinians was being promoted. Hussein bin Talal saved Jordan from many disasters and saved the Palestinians from themselves. We can only bow in respect to a man who built a modern state without resorting to repressive practices that characterised most rulers in the Arab Mashriq countries from the 1950s until today. At the end of the king’s life, power was transferred smoothly to Hussein’s eldest son, King Abdullah II, highlighting the solidity of Jordanian institutions. Until the end of his days, King Hussein remained true to his ambition of creating a modern Jordanian state. He was a rare breed in our Arab world, which was ruled only by lust for power at any price. It is difficult to let this anniversary pass without remembering this great man who not only laid the foundations for the institutions of the Jordanian state but also believed in the principles of modernity and development. Twenty years ago, King Hussein bin Talal passed away.
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