Page 303 - They Also Served

evaded the assassination attempt and added to his popularity in Jordan. On 29th August 1960, a bomb killed the prime minister and the secondary device, intended for the king as he rushed to the scene, only failed by a few minutes. Another attempt on his life involved replacing the king’s nasal drops with acid and a cook was arrested for killing cats while selecting the best poison to dispose of the monarch.
In the mid-1960s, Hussein juggled a growing Palestinian population and Israeli reprisals for their raids, as well as opposition from the pro-Russian countries of Egypt and Syria. This led to an ill-advised pact with Egypt on 30th May 1967, which included handing over command of the army to the Egyptian General Riad and accepting Iraqi troops into the country. On 5th June, Israel launched a pre-emptive strike, destroying the Egyptian Air Force, but Riad, misinformed by his superiors that it was the opposite, launched an attack on Israel. Hussein survived another assassination attempt when Israeli planes attacked his palace. It eventually took diplomatic pressure from the USA to curtail these direct threats. The Six-Day War was a disaster for Jordan. The West Bank (which accounted for 40% of the country’s GDP) was lost and 200,000 more refugees flooded into the country.
The growth of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and its increasing attacks on Israel, combined with a further two assassination attempts and the hijack and destruction of three airliners at a remote Jordanian airstrip, galvanised Hussein into action. Coordinated attacks on PLO camps and a heavy defeat of a Syrian intervention force won the day. The Israeli air force harassed the Syrians with dummy attack runs,
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