New Delhi: A trip to the Middle East by U.S. President Joe Biden was thrown into chaos after a strike on a Gaza hospital killed hundreds of Palestinians on Wednesday, the day he arrived in Tel Aviv. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas swiftly called off a scheduled meeting with Biden after the strike. A summit that was meant to bring Biden together with Egyptian and Palestinian leaders was also canceled by Jordan’s King Abdullah. Biden, who had planned to visit Tel Aviv and Jordan during the one-day trip, will now only go to Israel, the White House said. The hospital bombing was blamed on Israel’s military by Gaza authorities; Israeli authorities denied any role in the strike, which happened during a huge Israeli assault on the enclave and claimed about 500 lives.


A Time of Turmoil And Tension


COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

The Middle East was in a state of chaos and conflict in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), under the leadership of Yasser Arafat, was fighting a guerrilla war against Israel from the lands it had occupied in the 1967 Six-Day War, including the West Bank, which belonged to Jordan. The PLO also wanted to overthrow the Jordanian monarchy, ruled by King Hussein, and create a Palestinian state on both sides of the Jordan River. The king, who had been secretly talking to Israel for years, had a tough choice to make: should he back the Palestinian cause and risk losing his crown, or should he attack the PLO and risk angering his mostly Palestinian people?


The Skyjackings That Sparked A War


The crisis reached a climax in September 1970, when the PLO and its radical wing, the PFLP, hijacked several international flights and forced them to land on a desert runway in Jordan, where they took hundreds of hostages and blew up the planes in front of the global media. The king saw this as a challenge and a danger to his authority. He ordered his army to encircle and bombard the Palestinian refugee camps and city strongholds, where the PLO fighters were hiding.


The PLO fought back fiercely, and a bloody civil war broke out, which became known as Black September. The war lasted for 10 months, until July 1971, when the king finally managed to kick out the PLO from his country, with the help of Israeli intelligence and American diplomacy. The PLO moved to Lebanon, where it continued its struggle against Israel and got involved in another civil war. The king secured his rule, but at a high price of lives and reputation. He also lost his friend and ally, Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who died of a heart attack while trying to mediate between Jordan and the PLO.


This is the story of how Jordan crushed the PLO in 1970, and how it changed the course of history in the Middle East.