One more river
MIDDLE EAST-1 DAVID PRYCE-JONES
Amman—In the streets of Amman now the members of the Fatah, the resistance move- ment dedicated to reconquering Israel, are in evidence as never before. They wear camou- flage uniforms and British-style webbing with ammunition pouches. In the main they are Palestinians, some are students, and some have been trained in Syria and Algeria. Six months ago, say the Israelis, the Fatah members whom they had been capturing were intelligent, often educated abroad. One example was Feisal Husseini, son of a well-known Arab leader killed in the 1948 war, a graduate from Cairo and Damascus and now sentenced to a year's imprisonment for possessing weapons in Jerusalem. His brother is also held in an Israeli prison pending a charge. Recently the standard of the guerrillas has sunk. When taken prisoner, they are prompt to denounce one another. The Israelis are left with pages of such testimonies, and they claim that for every guerrilla held after a fight, as many as forty are rounded up through denunciations.
The Israeli occupation of the West Bank has been successful so far in one of its major political aims, that of driving a wedge between the Fatah and the local Palegtinian population. Inhabitants of the West Bank appreciate that if they cooperate with the Fatah their houses will be blown up and they will be arrested. If they mind their own business, they will be left alone. In fact, they hasten to inform the mili- tary authorities of guerrilla activities, suspected or real. There is therefore no effective terrorist campaign at present, although such incidents as the mining of a school bus provoked panic reactions in Israel—which show how violently the country would strike back against a proper menace of sabotage.
Given the failure of Fatah actions, it is hard to understand the motives for the Israeli one- day invasion of Jordan. This attack has only strengthened the commandos whom the Israelis had intended to root out. Such reprisals breed sabotage in a vicious circle. On the day after the attack the Fatah had returned to Karameh and even called a press conference there. On the roads to the Jordan valley they are to be seen travelling with the regular army. One Fatah battalion is under training at Zerqa with the Iraqi army, whose troops are also to be seen in Amman. Before the main mosque in Amman I saw a lorry carrying through the souk some twenty recruits who were openly chanting 'Fatah.' A memorial poster to a dead commando is stuck on most of the shop win- dows and even on the Intercontinental Hotel. Shopkeepers are obliged to pay them protec- tion money.
The Jordanians to whom I talked, even those in the administration, are obsessed with the image of the Vietcong. They see no alternative to such warfare. It is impossible for King Hussein and his government to suppress these groups, which alone are actively fighting Israel; but any encouragement of them leads to Israeli retaliation. Caught between the Israelis and the Fatah, the king has authority only so long as he does not exert it. The Jor- danian army, on which the king relies, has also lost in this attack some of its remaining equip- ment and is thus further weakened, although it may shortly expect arms from America. The logic of the Israeli tactics combines with the increasing numbers of the Fatah to make the king's position intolerable. If the Fatah were to assume power in Jordan, it would not be to Israel's advantage to have as a neighbour a left-wing militaristic government making com- mon cause with Syria and Iraq.
The uncertainty in Amman seems close to hysteria. There are comparisons of Dayan and of President Johnson to Hitler. Car lights are commonly painted over ready for a blackout. Anti-aircraft guns are in position. Huge crowds throng over the three captured Israeli tanks on display. It is suggested that Israel will expel all Arabs from occupied land and, pathetically, the camps allot space for future refugees.
The refugees are too demoralised to make good guerrillas, but some join the Fatah as a way out of the camps. In some tent which passes for a youth centre, perhaps a dozen refugee teenagers will sit about all day, wait- ing. On a blackboard is pinned the portrait of a dead Fatah leader, and crude drawings of guns. Charities of all kinds operate, but there are not enough tents and not enough calories; the camps have bad sites on windswept desert plains or in areas which have to be changed according to the military situation. Some of the new DPs have been moved three times since last June. They go from camp to camp now, and to the towns in search of a living. The actual population of the camp at Baqa'a, supposedly 44,000, may be considerably higher or lower, as the official UNWRA statement puts it. Calling at the Ministry of Reconstruction I found scores of DPS pressing at the entrance, hoping to be registered for a ration card. Women were suckling babies on the ministry steps. Common prudence and self-interest suggest that Israel should take the heat out of their predicament and accept these people back at once, especially since the West Bank population prove no security risk.
I was one of only three westerners to have crossed and recrossed the Allenby Bridge since the one-day invasion. The journey is likely to prove impossible from now on. I had been escorted from Tel Aviv down to the bridge by a would-be rabbi from Chicago: I was escorted down from Amman to the bridge by a would-be writer studying for his doctorate in Los Angeles. The roadblocks and police checks were the same on both sides, and also the patient Arab, queueing on bureaucracy. Dr Gunnar Jarring may -,)me and go, but the situation on the ground is beyond the control of reason or diplomacy. Across the river each side acts in response to the other, like partners in some terrible marriage that should have stopped long ago. The frustration is reciprocal. In the com- ing months, perhaps weeks, the break-up is likely to happen, dramatically, and with it comes the next stage in this Hundred Years War.
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