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Thursday, June 07, 2007

Why did the PLO threaten King Hussein in 1966?

It has been pointed out that the PLO was founded before there were any "territories" to be "liberated" and that this proto-terror organization never tried to fight to gain the West Bank as an independent state from Jordan.

This didn't mean that the Palestinian Arabs were happy with Jordan, though. The PalArabs who lived in the West Bank in those days, under Arab rule, were thirsting to fight Israel - and were upset that Jordan wouldn't let them, as this November 25, 1966 UPI report shows:



The PLO tried to take advantage of the situation (UPI, December 27, 1966):



The PLO, using religious imagery ("Hussein betrayed God, the Prophet and Palestine"), was complaining that Jordan didn't hate Israel enough. Because Jordan wouldn't allow Iraqi and Saudi troops into Jordan to help destroy Israel, the PLO threatened to overthrow King Hussein and replace him with someone who would.

But nowhere did they say they wanted a Palestinian Arab state in part or all of Jordan! If a Palestinian Arab textbook at the time would have shown "Palestine," no doubt, it would have shown Israel in its pre-1967 borders. People who lived in Jordanian-occupied Ramallah and Nablus didn't want to fight Jordan for independence, but Israel.

And if Israel was reduced to the size of a postage stamp, the Arab desire to wipe it out would not be diminished one bit.