ABSTRACT
The anticipated confrontation with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) was probably the main immediate motivation for the decision of the new government to focus on domestic indoctrination. At the first news conference held by Tall, on 20 February 1965, the Minister of Information Dhuqan Hindawi emphasized the importance of the government information apparatus 'as an important instrument for the consolidation of the democratic regime'. The verbal exchanges between Husayn and Shuqayri only served to emphasize what was self-evident. Jordan and the PLO were heading for a direct confrontation, emanating from their shared perception of the Jordanian-Palestinian complex as a single unit in which both parties strove for supremacy. Shuqayri's PLO critics accused him of undermining the exclusive identity of the Palestinians and conjuring up the danger of subjugation to Jordanian custodianship by his efforts to appease the Jordanian government.
