Jordan History and Current Foreign Policy Issues
History In 1948, Jordan became involved in the Palestinian conflict. ... Immediately Jordan and the other Arab states went to war with Israel. When the war ended in January 1949, Israel occupied much of Palestine, Jordan held the West Bank, and Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan. In 1950, Jordan officially annexed the West Bank (Metz 3). The annexation introduced profound changes in both the social structure and the political life of Jordan. ... ” Throughout the rest of the 1950’s Jordan remained unstable while other Arab countries competed for political power in the Middle East along with the United States and Soviet Union. In the late 1950s, the United States became Jordan’s chief Western source of financial and military support (Metz 3). In the early 1960’s, tension grew between Jordan, Israel, and the other Arab countries. Arabs and Israelis disagreed over rights to the waters of the River Jordan, while Palestinian refugees banded together and formed the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) in 1964. The PLO organized raids into Israel from Jordan and Lebanon, and Israel responded with raids into Arab territory. Also in 1964, Jordan and other Arab nations united their armies under one command (Harris 17). In June 1967, Israel defeated Jordan, Egypt, and Syria in a six-day war. Jordan lost East Jerusalem and all of the West Bank to Israeli occupation. ... As a result Jordan’s economy suffered (Korbani 15). ... By early 1970, these groups represented an unofficial second government in Jordan. ... It took only a month for Jordan’s army to defeat the Palestinians, but the fighting between the army and isolated guerilla groups continued into 1971 and beyond (Metz 4). The more recent developments involving Jordan and the Palestinians started in 1986, with a disagreement between Jordan and the PLO over Palestinian policy. Jordan’s leader, King Hussein, tried to set up a new leadership for the Palestinians, but they demonstrated their loyalty to the PLO in an uprising against Israel’s occupying forces in the West Bank.