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To H-3 & Back. His enemies would counterattack, and the King knew it. On Monday some 200 leaders of the Communist and pro-Nasser parties met at Nablus to compose what amounted to an ultimatum. They demanded: 1) release and reinstatement of all pro-Nasser officers, including Abu Nuwar; 2) dismissal of Hussein's new Cabinet; 3) sacking of Hussein's Court Minister; 4) a promise not to invite to Jordan Roving Ambassador James Richards, President Eisenhower's special representative in the Middle East; and 5) expulsion of U.S. Ambassador Lester Mallory.
Cairo's radio, Voice of the Arabs, strangely muted during the crisis' first week, began talking darkly about plots "in the palace" against the Jordanian people. This was the familiar signal, sounded just before the Baghdad Pact riots in 1955, for Egyptian agents and Communist organizers to lead the mobs into the streets. But before it could begin, King Hussein got into his twin-engine de Havilland Dove, and flew off to a secret rendezvous at H-3 with his Hashemite cousin, Iraq's 22-year-old King Feisal.
Feisal reassured him that Iraqi troops would be at his disposal. That meant that if the Syrians threatened to use their 4,000 troops and 30 Czech tanks in Jordan against the King, he could stop them by threatening to call in the Iraqis. But Israel, which wants no powerful Arab neighbor at its back door, has often warned that its army will enter Jordan whenever Iraqi soldiers do. On his return to Amman. Hussein summoned U.S. Ambassador Mallory to his hilltop palace. The King wanted the U.S. to exert all its influence to keep the Israelis out. Hussein also phoned King Saud. urging him to press Egypt and Syria to abate their inflammatory broadcasts about events in Jordan. That evening the Palestinians were told that the King had decided to reject all their demands.
King of the Streets. Communists and pro-Nasser extremists passed the word to start a nationwide strike against the regime. But long before dawn broke Wednesday, Hussein had sent loyal Bedouin troops with tanks into all the Palestinian strongkolds. Amman itself swarmed with blackened Bedouins in tanks and armored cars. Out came the demonstrators, mostly teen-age schoolboys, their teachers hustling them along like anxious sheep dogs. In the post-office square (which Americans nicknamed Riot Plaza), crowds began rhythmically clapping hands and chanting: "Down with the Eisenhower Plan!" and "Long Live Nasser!" The marchers threw stones at the police, who warded them off with basket-weave shields. After one scuffle ("I've seen worse at Ebbets Field," said one newsman), the police fired a warning shot into the air. By early afternoon it was all over in Amman, and Hussein was king of the streets as well as boss of the army.