King Hussein’s government was possibly the weakest of all after Israel’s 1967 victory. Besides the massive problem of 400,000 additional Palestinian refugees to care for, Jordan had lost the West Bank to Israel. Complicating the situation was the PLO, strong enough now to resemble a state-within-a-state. In September 1970 a hard-line PLO faction hijacked a number of commercial airliners and flew them to Jordan, seeking to derail U.S. Secretary of State William Roger’s peace initiative and to provoke a showdown with the Jordanian government. Hussein, fearing a loss of authority and possibly an overthrow of the monarchy either by the military or the Palestinians, declared war on the PLO.

Fighting between Jordanian and PLO troops began, the death toll rising into the thousands. When Syrian tanks rolled into Jordan to assist the out-gunned PLO, Israeli forces mobilized in the Golan, and Syria backed down. This, coupled with the decision by the Commander of the Syrian Air Force, Hafiz al-Asad, to deny the PLO air cover, devastated the PLO. After Arab League mediation and Nasser’s personal intervention, an agreement was forged in late September and the PLO reluctantly moved its headquarters to I-ebanon.