ABSTRACT
The period under discussion witnessed the beginning of a direct diplomatic dialogue, at the highest level, between Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Hussein ibn Talal, which was to culminate thirty-one years later, in 1994, in the signing of a peace treaty between the two countries.1
However, these years were also marked by rising tension along their long shared border and by two acute crises: the first was the IDF reprisal operation at Samu in the southern Hebron mountains on 13 November 1966 whose consequences threatened to destabilize Hussein’s rule; the second was Hussein’s decision to become part of the military alignment against Israel by signing a mutual defence pact with Nasser on 30 May 1967 and placing his armed forces under Egyptian command. This move accelerated the outbreak of hostilities, in the course of which Israel occupied the West Bank and Jordan reverted to its original dimensions as Transjordan.
