October 26: Peace with Jordan

Jordan became the second Arab country (after Egypt) to normalize relations with Israel when representatives of the two countries signed a peace treaty on this date in 1994. A state of war had existed between the two countries since 1948, but Jordan’s King Hussein had also warred against the Palestine Liberation Organization in 1970, expelling thousands of Palestinians from Jordan while strengthening back-channel relations with Israel. Hussein had held secret negotiations with Shimon Peres in 1987, and the two had agreed to a framework for a Mideast peace conference that was aborted by Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir. In 1988, Jordan abandoned its claims to the West Bank, and in 1994, after the Oslo Accords were signed between Israel and the PLO, Hussein, Yitzhak Rabin, and Bill Clinton signed a joint declaration that would lead to the peace treaty.
“[I]n March 1977 . . . after a Jordanian soldier had gone mad and killed several Israeli schoolgirls on a field trip at Baqoura on the border between Israel and Jordan, the King flew to Israel and personally visited the bereaved families. His gesture of kneeling before them and offering his personal condolences had a profound effect in Israel, turning a tragedy into an event which helped cement relations between the two states. . . . King Hussein was aware of the hopes and fears of Israelis and did his best to reassure them.” —Nigel Ashton, author, King Hussein of Jordan: A Political Life.