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Ammon News - AMMONNEWS - On this day in 1967, Jordan’s King Hussein warned the U.N. General Assembly that if it failed to condemn Israel as an aggressor and did not force it to return captured Arab lands, recent fighting in the region would prove to be only one clash in a prolonged war.

The Jordanian ruler spoke to the world body in the aftermath of the Six-Day War, a pre-emptive strike by Israel against Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The war began on June 5 when Israel launched surprise attacks against Egyptian airfields in response to the mobilization of Egyptian forces on Israel’s southern border.

Speaking in a low voice heavy with emotion, Hussein appealed for “peace with justice,” adding: “Jordan will survive. Ground down by sorrow for the moment, we will rise again. And with us will arise the Arab nations.”

In response, Abba Eban, Israel’s foreign minister, verbally indicted Jordan as the instigator of its share of the brief conflict. He charged that Hussein had answered Israel’s timely plea for disengagement by Jordan, which effectively controlled the entire Palestinian West Bank as well as East Jerusalem, with “the crash of shells” on the divided holy city.

On Nov. 22, 1967, the U.N. Security Council adopted Resolution 242, a “land for peace” formula, which called on Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories and for “the termination of all claims or states of belligerency.” Resolution 242 also recognized the right of “every state in the area to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.”

Israel returned the Sinai to Egypt in 1978, after the Camp David Accords. It disengaged from the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005, although its army has periodically re-entered Gaza to conduct military operations and retains control of border crossings and approaches from the sea.


*Politico