My late father King Hussein would not have believed this. He always told me that you were the one person I could rely on to keep terrorists at bay. My father was a man who learned from experience. He defied Israel's requests to stay out of the war in 1967 and paid the penalty. After that, he heeded your request to stay out of the conflict in 1973. You had an understanding. Who needs treaties and ceremonies when quiet on the ground is what we want and what we had?

My dear father was so upset with Menachem Begin and all that silly talk about autonomy. He knew that Camp David would just excite more blood lust and end in an independent terrorist state between us -- just what we don't need. You know, even Nasser told a Western reporter in 1956: "Can you imagine yet another nation on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean!"

I can't tell you how furious my father was after the Lebanese debacle -- you had Arafat in your gunsights and let him go! He was forced to welcome those thugs back into Jordan and kiss each and every one of them. Their stubble irritated his cheeks for weeks. And he had to worry over their grudges over his earlier execution of several thousand PLO murderers and expulsion of the rest -- and thanks to Begin, here they were back on the streets of Jordan. But what do you know about grudges?

There was only one bright spot. Arafat himself and his top cronies were sent to Tunisia where the government kept a tight lid on them. Then Peres and Rabin did the unthinkable and brought those two bit gangsters back. This time my father warned you directly. On September 13, 1993, after the signing ceremony on the White House lawn, my father sent a royal message directly to Rabin: "Israel is doing business with the worst possible person. Arafat has proved time and again that his word cannot be trusted." Think I'm making this up? You can read the direct quote in Efraim Karsh's new book Arafat's War (p. 16). What could Rabin have been thinking? Arafat is such a cur, as we say in England. All the time, with all those dangerous developments, my father told me that as long as you were there, a terrorist entity between our borders was unthinkable. Never mind what we are forced to say in public.

So, what in the world are you doing? Have you lost your senses? Are you so afraid of your treasonous left that you abandon all reason?

Come on Arik, be the mensch my father assured me you were.

Remember, my lovely wife and I can go into exile among the royals who frolic with the Eurotrash on the Riviera. Where can you lead the people of Israel except into the sea?

Yours truly,
Abdullah

Ruth King is a member of the executive committee of Americans For a Safe Israel.

Americans For a Safe Israel
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Outpost               - 12 -               December 2003