Jordan v. The Rest
The Council of the Arab League, which has just met in Cairo, has passed a resolution threatening sanctions against any member State which comes to an independent settlement with Israel. The resolution was designed as an ultimatum to Jordan—conform or be ostracised. Without undue hesitation...Jordan, which had declined to be directly represented at the Cairo meetings, decided to conform. Past history has shown that the League is satisfied with verbal conformity, which is not held to be inconsistent with almost limitless divergencies in practical policies. For the resolution settles nothing. The somewhat metaphysical belief in the non-existence of Israel, which is an axiom of the League's official thought, is one in which
Jordan can hardly be expected to share ; Jordanian officials and troops confront the troops and officials of Israel along a 250-mile frontier, and all the talk about a "second round" and economic boycotts, which can be glib enough in Cairo, sounds very differently in Amman. All the same, the actual signature of a peace treaty between Jordan and Israel is something which most Jordanians, without any prompting from the League, find difficult to swallow. What they would like would be a regularised modus vivendi, which would give them a reasonable guarantee of peace along their western frontier and yet would not offend their Arab consciences. This may still prove to be capable of achievement without involving anyone in the threatened sanctions of the League. But the Arab League is unable to leave ill alone. The corollary to its denial of Israeli rule in West Palestine is its refusal to acknowledge Jordanian rule in the eastern half of the country—which is just as much of a reality. And to give additional point to the implied insult to King Abdullah, the League continues to flirt with the so-called "Govern- ment of all Palestine," which consists of a bunch of discredited intriguers, partisans of the. Mufti, who fled to Heliopolis early in the fighting. By Such actions the League shows that it still relies on its moth-eaten standards of pure nationalism to carry it triumphantly through from disaster to disaster.
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