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Amman's Palestinian majority was angered mainly, however, by the savagery of the Bedouins. "A sea of blood separates us from them," cried Arafat. This anger spread among Arabs elsewhere. In Jerusalem one day last week, 200 Arabs suddenly rushed out from noonday prayers at Al Aqsa mosque and ran through the streets screaming "Kill Hussein! Kill Hussein!"
Outlook for Hussein. For the King, his clouded victory in the civil war could well prove a Pyrrhic one. The fedayeen are too strongly entrenched throughout the Arab world for Hussein to eliminate them. Never a favorite among his fellow Arab rulers, the King has now lost almost all support. Palestinians living under Israeli occupation on the Jordan's west bank last week talked proudly of "our revolution." Algeria and Libya, at one point during the civil war, made moves to join on the side of the fedayeen. Libya also cut off its annual $25.2 million subsidy to Jordan and so did Kuwait, which was contributing $39.2 million. Even Hussein's lukewarm friends, like Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, can no longer be counted on for support. After Guerrilla Chieftain Arafat skipped out of Jordan and met with Nasser in Cairo to brief him on the battle, Egypt's President fired off a scathing protest accusing Hussein of lying, breaking promises and perpetrating "a horrible massacre."
Many Arab and Western observers agreed last week that Hussein's position as King may be barely tenable. "The battle in Jordan is over, but Hussein's war has just begun," said an Israeli foreign ministry official. "He had a chance to transform the monarchy into a presidency and become the leader of a Palestinian republic, but what can he be King of now? He can never rule the Palestinians again in any meaningful sense—only the Bedouins." What if he agreed to permit the establishment of a Palestinian state within Jordan's borders? Skeptics doubted that he would. "You're asking a King who's won a war over the guerrillas to sign away his victory," said a British official in London. Abdication? "I can't see him sunning his days away at Estoril with those other ex-kings," said the same official, "or living off a Swiss bank account for the rest of his life."
Hussein apparently intends to try to repair his torn kingdom, a courageous but possibly foolhardy decision. Last week he appointed a new government, half civilian, half military, with former Chief of the Royal Court Ahmed Toukan as Premier. But the King is left with few foreign friends, surrounded by implacable foes and plagued by a shortage of funds. A majority of the people in his kingdom are potential antagonists, and a sizable portion of his country is in Israeli hands. During the fighting in Amman, the 34-year-old monarch kept a helicopter standing by at Al-Hummar in case he lost the battle and was forced to flee after 17 years on a troubled throne. In the days to come, Hussein may regret that he never gave his pilot the order to fly.