The Big ‘If’: What Will Israel Do If Jordan Falls?

By William Ryan, AP Foreign Analyst

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The analysis characterizes the population of the east bank of the Jordan as backward nomads. Transcribed as a record of the language an Associated Press analyst used in 1958.

Transcribed from the clipping

“Hot, barren hills sprinkled with slate gray rock brood solemnly over one of the most jittery spots in the world today. The word on every tongue is ‘if.’

If anything should happen to King Hussein, ruler of the Hashemite kingdom of the Jordan— If Jordan should be attacked by one of her neighbors in an attempt to swallow up the confused little country— If Israel should feel she is threatened with complete encirclement by Gamel Abdel Nasser’s United Arab Republic. What would happen?

Would Israel move swiftly to straighten out her eastern borders? Would the Israelis occupy the eastern half of divided Jerusalem? Would the Israelis, indeed, seek to occupy that part of Palestine now a part of the Hashemite kingdom?

… The area of the most violent Arab nationalist fever lies in the northern part of Palestinian Jordan, a triangle whose points [are] Tulkarm, on the Israeli front[ier,] Jenin, to the northeast, and Nablus, to the south.

This sector has been the scene of disturbances against Hussien’s throne since the nationalist revolt in Iraq started the Palestinian kettle seething again.

Explosion Could Result. The area of Palestine held by Jordan is home for about a million Palestinians, who outnumber the Jordanians on the other side of the Jordan River by about two to one… The assault against Hussein, if and when it comes, will be staged by Palestinians. For the most part, Palestine’s nationalists will want to join Nasser’s U.A.R.

If they attempt it, some sort of Israeli response is likely. A major Middle East explosion could result.”

How this transcription was made

The headline, the byline, the map and the passages above have been read back against the scan. The remainder of the column continues below the fold and has not been transcribed. “Hussien” and “Gamel” are the paper’s own spellings.

Context added by this archive

An Associated Press analyst in 1958 counting the people and getting the arithmetic right: about a million Palestinians in the part of Palestine held by Jordan, outnumbering the Jordanians on the other bank two to one.

He calls the territory Palestinian Jordan and speaks of Palestine’s nationalists as a political force with intentions of their own — six years before the Palestine Liberation Organization was founded, in a Tacoma paper, beside a map and a department-store advertisement. The figure of speech he reaches for is a kettle, seething.

Cite this clipping

"The Big ‘If’: What Will Israel Do If Jordan Falls?," The News Tribune, 1 September 1958. Covering Palestine archive, CP-1958-007. https://coveringpalestine.org/archive/cp-1958-007