Word: arabism
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...means clear that Hussein can bring the Arab leaders together even to talk about peace. Most moderate Arab nations favor the idea, but Nasser has hemmed and hawed. Algeria's Boumediene, whose militant cries during the war have made him a rival of Nasser for leadership of the Arab left, turned down a suggestion that the meeting take place in Algiers because "there are some Arabs I wouldn't want to set foot in my country." Syrian Information Minister Mohamed Zubi sneered that "the only way to forge Arab unity is through struggle and not summitry...
...might be in a position to influence their thinking," he says. If not, Hussein intends to ask for their tacit consent for Jordan's coming to terms with Israel alone. If even their neutrality is denied him, Hussein may just go ahead without the consent of his fellow Arab leaders. "If it is absolutely impossible to reach agreement," says a close aide of Hussein's, "then each country will have to deal with the situation as it sees best. We are certainly going to refuse to have our hands tied when any country-Arab or otherwise-behaves negatively...
...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...
Hussein is an Arab to the core, but he is not at all like most Arab rulers...
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...