MIDDLE EAST: Shifting Alignments

In the struggle for power in the Middle East, alignments were shifting.

Pivot of the shift was Jordan, which in nine years has been transformed from a quiet Bedouin kingdom to a turbulent and strife-torn nation dominated by Palestine Arabs. The crisis in Jordan was misleadingly billed by Arabs and Israelis alike as strictly an "internal" Jordanian affair. It was anything but that. Jordan is an artificial country carved out of the desert, and cannot live without support from somebody. Ever since the British abdicated, King Hussein's chaotic and impoverished kingdom has been open to every neighbor's intervention. During last...

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