ABSTRACT
Throughout this entire period, Reuven Shiloah played a central role in what became known as the ‘secret talks with Jordan’. These were the talks with King Abdullah of Jordan that have left us with two unanswered questions: (a) could Israel have gained more from that covert channel than it did at the official armistice talks, and (b) why did the talks end the way they did? The talks with Abdullah, and later with his grandson and heir, Hussein, comprise a chapter in the history of the State of Israel and the Zionist movement made up of many different and complex episodes. They began during Abdullah’s troubled lifetime, from the time when he was still the Emir of the principality of Transjordan, and continued long after his assassination. Conceivably these episodes will continue well into the future, as long as these two countries share a border and a history.1
