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Different Ruler. Jordan also has a pressing necessity to act courageously. Hero or not, Hussein cannot long hope to survive, at least as a moderate, without getting the west bank of his country back. Palestinian Jordan, which the Israelis now hold, is the most prosperous part of his land. It contains nearly a third of the arable farm land, nearly half the population—and Jerusalem. With U.S. and British aid, long-range development programs and expanded tourism, Hussein had expected to make his country self-supporting by 1971. Without the west bank, however, and the strong tourist revenues from the Old City of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, there is little possibility that Jordan can ever develop a really viable economy.
But Hussein's dilemma extends far beyond the economy. He is a Bedouin King ruling a land populated largely by Palestinians—a sophisticated people who look down on Bedouins as unreliable nomads. His country is hemmed in on three sides by states that have often attacked him. To the east is Iraq, where his Hashemite cousin, King Feisal, was killed and the monarchy abolished in 1958. To the north is rabid, leftist Syria, which last sent an assassination team out to kill him in May and blew up a Jordanian border post only a week before the war began. To the west is Israel, with which Jordan has a longer border than any Arab country. The divisions between the conservative, pro-Western Hussein and the Arab left led by Egypt's President Nasser are so fundamental that the war has just papered them over, not erased them. Hussein has to move with extreme care lest the left seize on his willingness to negotiate with Israel and invite the volatile Palestinians to move against him.
Hussein is an Arab to the core, but he is not at all like most Arab rulers.
A stubby (5 ft. 4 in.), powerfully built man of 31, he is perhaps the world's most active and athletic ruler, relishing racing, flying and any other sport that involves danger and suspense. He can trace his Hashemite dynasty back to the prophet Mohammed, and his ancestors ruled the holy city of Mecca for 37 generations; yet his country is so new (1921) that he is only its third King. Despite his youth and many interests, he rules Jordan with a firm hand, shuffling his Cabinet regularly and on occasion even dissolving Parliament when it refuses to do his bidding. Yet in the 14 years he has been King, Jordan has been transformed from a land of backward nomads to a prospering, growing state —at least until last month's war broke out.
Scorn & Vilification. Hussein did not really want to get into the war, but he must take some of the responsibility for starting it. He carefully abstained from joining the chorus of Arab leftist leaders who demanded that the Jews be driven into the sea, did everything in his power to prevent Arab terrorists from using Jordan as a base. His refusal to cooperate won him scorn and vilification from Nasser and the left. But when the Arab armies began mobilizing on Israel's borders and the cry of jihad filled the air, Hussein figured that if war came he would have to join it or be toppled from his throne by Arab mobs.