AMMAN, JORDAN.
KING HUSSEIN has been Israel’s greatest Arab friend for nearly 40 years.
For most of that time, the friendship was secret.
It was hush-hush because Hussein couldn’t risk the bitter revenge of the Arab world, which was then totally at war with Israel.
It was in the early 1960s that secret channels were created between the young ruler and Israeli leaders to battle Palestinian terrorism.
Hussein was afraid Palestinian radicals might eventually also turn against him – as they in fact did in 1970 during “Black September,” when he had to crush a revolt by military force, killing thousands.
During those years as secret allies, he exchanged vital in002 . 0005.05formation with the Israelis about Palestinian terrorist groups seeking to hit Israel. He warned Israeli leaders about planned raids so they could foil them in time.
In return, the Israelis passed along tips to the king about Arab countries or Palestinian radicals trying to plot against his kingdom – and his life.
On one occasion in the mid-1960s, as the king was piloting his own passenger plane, the Syrian Air Force dispatched two Soviet-built jets to shoot him down.
The Israeli Air Force picked up the plot on radar and sent its jets to scatter the attackers and radioed the king to change course, saving his life.
In 1967, the monarch made his historic mistake and joined with Arab radicals to call for the destruction of Israel. He fought 002 . 0000.00against Israel with the Egyptians and the Syrians in the Six-Day War and lost the West Bank and his control of East Jerusalem.
But then Hussein decided that once and for all he would become a staunch ally of Israel and renewed the secret meetings.
The friendship burst into the open only after Hussein signed the peace agreement with Israel in 1994.
The transformation of Israelis – who once regarded the Jordanian king as another Arab enemy – into admirers is remarkable.
002 . 0000.00Israelis, like Jordanians, have been watching TV with tears in their eyes, eager for the latest news about the health of Hussein, the only Arab leader to whom they could show their back without being stabbed immediately in the old-fashioned desert tradition.
Over recent years, he had become so beloved that popular Israeli humorist Efrayim Kishon coined the affectionate nickname “Hussie,” which all Israelis use.
Israelis have never forgotten Hussein’s eloquent words when he attended the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin in Jerusalem after the then-prime minister was assassinated in November 1995.
The king movingly eulogized Rabin, saying he had died like a hero and that Hussein himself wished to finish his own life with such courage.
002 . 0000.00He did. The king showed an unflagging bravery as he fought his terrible illness.
Although weakened by his battle for life, he did not hesitate to leave his bed last October and fly to Wye Plantation to save the peace negotiations between Yasser Arafat and Benjamin Netanyahu.
During the past two years, he encouraged his son Prince Abdullah, who has already been named regent and will become king, to visit Israel and meet its political and military leaders.
It was on one of his visits that Abdullah, a paratrooper, said he would like to jump with the Israelis on one of their exercises.
The invitation was immediately given and still stands.
Israelis believe that when it comes to friendship between Jerusalem and Amman, the son will follow in his father’s footsteps.
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