By Adam Hanieh
On February 7, King Hussein of Jordan was pronounced dead and removed from his life support system. Hussein ruled Jordan for 47 years after inheriting the crown from his father, who abdicated in 1953.
Judging by the mainstream media coverage, Hussein was one of the most loved monarchs in the world, and one of the most important leaders this century. His funeral was attended by, amongst others, Prince Charles, French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Russian President Boris Yeltsin and a large delegation from the US, including President Clinton and ex-presidents Ford, Bush and Carter. The United Arab Emirates declared a 40-day mourning period, and flags were flown at half-mast in many countries — including Israel.
This remarkable outpouring of "grief" around the world tells us clearly in whose interests Hussein ruled for 47 years. Perhaps most indicative of all are the comments by Israeli foreign minister Ariel Sharon, who lamented, "The Middle East and the entire world have lost a great leader, and the state of Israel has lost a genuine friend".
Lines in the sand
The British created Jordan in 1921 in the same manner as they did the states of Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia — by drawing lines in the sand and appointing compliant and loyal monarchs to support their interests. The British-created Jordan was ruled by King Abdullah (Hussein's grandfather) from 1921 to 1951 and served as a buffer state to facilitate British intentions for a Jewish state in Palestine.
According to Lawrence of Arabia, who liaised between the British government and the various tribal rulers Britain attempted to sponsor, "It would be preferable to use Transjordan (the country's name until 1950) as a safety valve, by appointing a ruler who would bring pressure to bear, to check anti-Zionism".
As an artificial state, Jordan had no natural resources or wealth and nothing to identify its population as Jordanian. Abdullah was brought in from the Arabian desert to rule the country without consultation with or the support of the people.
From its inception, Jordan relied on British and then United States support, and its policies in the region have consistently reflected their interests. In order to ensure its survival, the Jordan monarch relied upon three pillars: western financial aid, Israeli support to confront external and internal threats and a minority Bedouin army.
For the first 27 years of Jordan's existence, Abdullah and the British-led Jordanian Arab Legion worked towards the aim of creating a Jewish-only state in Palestine. Abdullah held regular secret meetings with Zionist leaders aimed at partitioning Palestine between the Zionists and himself. These meetings continued under British supervision for many years, including during the major Palestinian uprisings of 1932 and 1936.
The first involvement of the Jordanian Arab Legion in Palestinian politics came in 1936, when, led by the British officer Glubb Pasha, it prevented Syrian and Iraqi partisans from joining Palestinian fighters rebelling against the British mandate government of the time.
Glubb's actions were a major factor in the victory of the Zionist forces in the 1948 war that led to the establishment of Israel. The British government instructed Glubb and the legion, which was the best of the Arab armies at the time, not to enter any territory allocated to the Jews by the various partition plans. This enabled the Zionist armies to carry out the mass expulsion of Palestinian residents without much resistance. Glubb consistently referred to the Palestinians as "terrorists and gangs" and intercepted arms being sent to them.
After the war, Glubb and the Arab Legion imprisoned and tortured Palestinian fighters in the West Bank, which had come under Jordan's control through secret agreements between Abdullah and Israel. Abdullah got his just deserts when he was assassinated in 1951 by a Palestinian opposed to his close links with Israel.
King Hussein continued the policies of his grandfather despite cosmetic changes, including firing Glubb Pasha in 1956. He strengthened ties with Israel and the west and fought against the Arab unity championed by Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser following the Egyptian revolution in 1952.
Israel sent messages of support to Hussein as he confronted pro-Nasser forces inside Jordan. It was at this point that the US openly embraced Hussein as part of an anti-Arab front (Hussein even made a secret visit to Tel Aviv). Hussein's intelligence agencies provided names of fighters with the newly born Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) to Israel and stifled any dissent by Palestinians in the West Bank until the area was occupied by Israel in 1967.
In 1970, Hussein sent his Bedouin army against Palestinian fighters in Jordan and almost wiped them out. Thousands of Palestinians were killed, an event remembered by Palestinians as "Black September". Some Palestinian fighters even crossed the River Jordan and gave themselves up to Israel rather than fall into Jordanian hands.
During Black September, Hussein asked for and received Israeli assistance. He continued his anti-Palestinian and anti-Arab offensive by "warning" the Israelis of an impending attack by Egypt and Syria in 1973.
During the Lebanese civil war that began in 1975, and the Israeli invasion of Lebanon in 1980, Hussein advised the right-wing Lebanese Christian militias to seek Israeli help. He also provided them with weapons and ammunition. These wars resulted in thousands more Palestinians being killed and, eventually, the evacuation of the PLO from Lebanon.
Despite strong support from Israel and the west, at times Hussein had to hide his actions and adopt pro-Arab slogans. The major reason was that Hussein's power rested upon a narrow, wealthy Jordanian elite and a minority Bedouin population, which he favoured with jobs and financial support.
However, more than 60% of Jordan's population is Palestinian, many of whom live in refugee camps in and around the Jordanian capital, Amman. It was these people and their impoverished Jordanian counterparts who forced Hussein's "mistake" (as it was called by every news reporter last week) of opposing the US-led bombing of Iraq in 1991. Had he supported the US in this war, Hussein might not have died a king.
After the Gulf War, Hussein rushed to mend the bridges with his western supporters and embraced full "normalisation" with Israel. Trade agreements were signed, and Israeli factories began to relocate to Jordan to take advantage of its cheap labour. Security cooperation agreements signed then mean that today hundreds of Palestinian militants are unwilling to travel to Jordan because they are wanted by the Jordanian security forces.
In the 1990s, Hussein moved further than any Arab leader to normalise relations with Israel, at last preaching openly what he had practised for years. Western journalists fell in love with the "PLK", the Plucky Little King. US and Israeli tributes following his death praised his role during the Oslo and Wye negotiations.
Stability
Much of the media attention in the last week has focused on what Hussein "did for Jordan", accompanied by TV pictures of weeping Jordanians and conciliatory world leaders. Hussein's Jordan is one of the poorest countries in the region; one-fifth of its population lives under the poverty line, and its foreign debt is US$6.8 billion. Its main lifeline is financial aid from the west and Gulf countries.
What imperialism fears most now is instability in Jordan. Already, calls have been made by opposition leaders for more political freedom and an end to autocratic rule. This fear of instability was indicated by the 10% drop in the Jordanian dinar on February 6 and the immediate offer by the US and the United Arab Emirates of US$300 million and US$500 million aid respectively.
In addition, World Bank president James Wolfensohn attended Hussein's funeral and promised to speed up loans to Jordan. Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu ordered taxes on Jordanian imports slashed and instructed his ministers to implement other steps to boost economic ties with Jordan.
In a sense, Hussein's death does mark the passing of an era: he is the last of the British-installed monarchs, and he performed his job "to check anti-Zionism" admirably. For this, Israel and the western powers are extremely grateful, as they demonstrated at Hussein's funeral on February 8.
However, the legacy of this era lives on in the Middle East, a region in which the interests of millions of people continue to be sacrificed for western profits and false promises of peace.