News from the Middle East is full of the threat of Arab revolts “springing” up in Jordan and challenging the rule of King Abdullah II, son of the late King Hussein. The throne in Amman is depicted as the “ancient” Hashemite Dynasty of Jordan. It’s a royal historical scam. There has never, repeat never, been an ancient Hashemite legacy in Palestine, unless 1922 is “ancient” history.
Abdullah I (left), King of Jordan and (right) his brother Feisal 1 of Iraq.
That year the British deeded 82% of Mandated Palestine to the Arabs. King Feisal got Iraq and his kid brother Abdullah Senior (great-grandpa to the present Abdullah) had to be mollified so they gave him Trans Jordan. He was assassinated and his grandson King Hussein, known as “Al-Malik Al-Insan ("The Humane King"), succeeded his father who was Talal the insane, who ruled only for a few months.
Again, check out the family tree which derails the spin of the ancient Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Please note that the family tree is detailed in small print in Arabic, but the English translation has been removed. The Hashemite clan ruled over parts of the Hijaz region of Arabia from 967 to 1925 in unbroken succession. Moreover, the late King Hussein’s branch of the Hashemite family ruled the holy city of Mecca from 1201 until 1925. When Abdullah (the First) took over Jordan, the local nomadic Arab population was totally indifferent. Calvin Coolidge could have been made king and it would not have created much of a stir.
What is really amazing is the number of Jordanian and Hashemite sites that speak of the Arab “restoration” of Jerusalem. In fact, under Hashemite control east Jerusalem was restored to rubble. Jewish shrines and cemeteries were sacked, torched, and defiled and access to Jews was forbidden and severely restricted for Christians.
But there is no surprise here. The west swallowed the lie whole and the Israelis except for the now somnolent Ariel Sharon did not promote the truth. Some excuse this lapse as a way to accommodate what was the crypto friendship of Israel and the late King Hussein after his humiliating defeat in 1967, but the cover-up of history now comes back to bite them as Arabs and their enablers agitate for independence without recognizing that Jordan is a Palestinian Arab state, occupied and ruled by a Hashemite minority.
Nonetheless, the myth lives and circulates and the royals of Jordan past and present do their best to keep it going. The present King reminds one and all that he is a direct descendant of the prophet Mohammed, but his ascension to the throne was by no means guaranteed. King Hussein had four wives and eleven children.
His first marriage, in 1955 when he was nineteen years old was to Dina bint’ Abdul Hamid, a twenty six year old Egyptian third cousin. They divorced in 1957 and a decade later she married Salah Taamari an Egyptian PLO commando.
Second foray down the aisle was to Antoinette Avril Gardiner in 1961. Toni, as she was called was an award-winning field hockey player, former typist, and daughter of a British army officer turned innkeeper. At their wedding and her conversion to Islam she was given the title Princess Muna al-Hussein. They were divorced ten years later after she bore him four children including Abdullah who is the present king. During his marriage to Muna, King Hussein was confronted with a challenge from the PLO in Jordan. In 1970 when the PLO almost consolidated a thuggish rule in Amman, King Hussein killed and expelled thousands in the incident known as “Black September”. The terrorists alighted in Lebanon where they ruled until the Lebanon War of 1981 when, in an enforced cease fire by the Reagan administration, several thousand were forcibly repatriated to Jordan. His third wife is a sad parenthesis. Alia-Baha ad Touqan and King Hussein were married in 1972. They had three children, one adopted. In 1977 she died in a helicopter crash.
Hussein’s fourth and most famous wife was American Elizabeth Najeeb Halaby whom he married in 1978. Upon her conversion to Islam she was renamed Queen Noor al Hussein. She and the King had four children and Ma Noor connived mightily to have their son Hamzah ascend to the throne upon Hussein’s death. Just before his death, Hussein made a constitutionally allowable change to his will, disinheriting the heir-apparent of several decades, his brother Hassan, in favor of his eldest son Abdullah.
Queen Noor left Jordan after his death in 1999. Elegant, comely, poised and nasty she still insists on being called “Her Majesty” by all and makes many televised appearances. She is now involved in something called “Global Zero” an anti- nuclear arms group. This must have put step-ma Noor in conflict with King Abdullah II who recently announced a desire for Jordan to have nuclear arms since it has no oil.
When Jerusalem was liberated in the 6-day war, they found many of Jewish holy places used as urinals by the Arabs.
ReplyDeleteSome 60%, if not more, of Jordan is comprised of so-called "palestinians". Give it a while and these too will tilt the system of "Hashemite" into new chaos. Just as Syria today is imploding because of minority control.