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  King Hussein Says Netanyahu Betrayed Trust

  By John Lancaster
  Washington Post Foreign Service
  Saturday, November 1, 1997; Page A18
  The Washington Post

  AMMAN, Jordan King Hussein of Jordan, infuriated by the recent Is-
  raeli  attempt to kill  a political leader of the militant Islamic
  group Hamas here, says that his trust  in Israeli  Prime  Minister
  Binyamin Netanyahu has all but evaporated and that only a much more
  vigorous diplomatic effort  by the  United States  can prevent t
  he collapse of Arab-Israeli peace negotiations.

  In an interview Thursday, the Jordanian monarch accused Netanyahu
  of repeatedly betraying him, most recently and most audaciously by
  dispatching Mossad secret service assassins on  a botched  mission
  to poison a Hamas  politburo member,  Khaled  Meshal,  in Amman in
  September.

  Hussein also faulted the United States for the deterioration in
  Arab-Israeli relations, urging Washington to play a much more
  active role in pressing Israel to abandon policies -- such as
  building settlements in the West Bank -- that he says are pushing
  the region toward an "explosion."

  "The United States, with its tremendous influence and impact on
  this area and all the people of the region, and its position in
  the world, should move from being a messenger to being actively
  involved," Hussein said in the interview at Basman Palace, over-
  looking the capital. "It just cannot carry on continuing to deli-
  ver messages from one side to another."

  The comments by Hussein, one of Washington's closet Arab allies,
  constitute a challenge to Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright,
  who said during a tour of the region in September that she will not
  return until Israel and the Palestinians demonstrate a greater
  commitment to peace. They also reflect his sense of betrayal: Alone
  among Arab leaders, and despite intense  political  opposition  at
  home, Hussein has pursued normal, friendly relations with Israel,
  with which Jordan made peace in 1994.

  In somber and at times despairing tones, Hussein, 61, said he
  has virtually run out of ideas on how to deal with the right-wing
  Israeli leader. He accused Netanyahu of repeatedly breaching
  commitments to his Arab negotiating partners and pandering to
  extremist elements in Israel's body politic. Far from enhancing
  Israel's security, he said, such tactics are fanning the flames of
  Arab radicalism and could lead to a new "balance of fear" between
  Israel and hostile neighbors armed with weapons of mass destruction.

  "It was an act against Jordan itself, its integrity and its soverei-
  gnty, and the results were devastating to the trust we had built so
  far," Hussein said of the Sept. 25 assassination attempt on Meshal,
  a Jordanian citizen.

  Hussein cautioned that he is not abandoning Jordan's policy of
  "normalization" with Israel. The two countries are continuing
  discussions on issues such as water rights, tourism and trade. The
  desert kingdom of nearly 4.5 million people, more than half of them
  Palestinian, is one of the few Arab states that has committed pub-
  licly to sending delegates to a U.S.-sponsored economic conference
  in the Persian Gulf state of Qatar next month. Israel also will
  attend.

  "If we cannot in certain areas see any real tangible progress it
  doesn't mean that we close the doors and go back to square one,"
  he said.

  But Hussein also made clear that he is increasingly inclined to
  draw a distinction between Netanyahu and the Israeli people, a
  majority of whom he says he still believes are committed to making
  peace with the Arabs. "It is a very fair distinction, and it's a
  very serious distinction in my mind," Hussein said.

  "I believe there is a very large peace camp [in Israel] as is the
  case here in Jordan, regardless of what the intelligentsia of Amman
  may or may not say," he said. "But there is nothing tangible. . . .
  There is nothing that can allay the fears, and I think this ques-
  tion of fears is something that is being played upon time and again."

  As a result, Hussein added, "a minority, both  here and there, are
  able to dictate the agenda."

  Hussein was not always so pessimistic. In an interview with Western
  journalists a few days after Netanyahu's election in May 1996, the
  king expressed confidence that the new Israeli leader would continue
  on the path of his Labor Party predecessors, Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon
  Peres.

  "It has a dynamic of its own," he said at the time. "It is
  irreversible."

  But Hussein said he has since been deeply disappointed by what he
  regards as Netanyahu's failure to honor his commitments. For exam-
  ple, he said, Israeli officials assured him months ago that "it
  would only take 24 hours to get the [Palestinian Authority] airport
  in Gaza operational."

  The airport has remained closed. Netanyahu has "promised he's going
  to surprise me many times, but I haven't seen any pleasant surpri-
  ses."

  Hussein confirmed reports that only two days before the attempt on
  Meshal's life, he had relayed a message to Israel on behalf of
  Hamas leaders broaching the possibility of a 10-year moratorium on
  violence. Netanyahu has defended the attack on Meshal on grounds
  that Hamas was behind recent suicide bombings in Jerusalem.

  Hussein said the episode has left him at a loss about how to
  proceed in his relationship with Netanyahu.

  "In the past I had a partner," he said in reference to Rabin, who
  was assassinated two years ago and with whom he was particularly
  close. "But now I don't know, I really don't know where we are."

              Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company

                                *****

  Wachtberg, November 4, 1997          I. Musa / Forum for Palestine
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