King of Jordan / Commander-in-Chief
"I have to live with myself, and I have to live with the mistakes I have made."
King Hussein I of Jordan was the man who lost the West Bank — and spent the next three decades trying to make peace. Crowned at age 17 after his grandfather Abdullah I was assassinated at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in 1951, Hussein navigated a narrow path between Arab nationalist pressure and pragmatic reality for 46 years. In June 1967, he made the worst decision of his reign. Despite Israeli warnings and his own secret intelligence links, he joined the war after being deceived by Egyptian reports of victories that were actually defeats. The Arab Legion's British-trained successors lost East Jerusalem and the entire West Bank in four days. The loss of the West Bank — and its 750,000 Palestinian residents — transformed Jordan and created the Palestinian refugee crisis that defined regional politics for decades. Hussein made peace with Israel in 1994 and died a year after Yasser Arafat's apparent poisoning, having tried and failed to solve the Palestinian problem for 46 years.
Did you know?
Israel warned King Hussein not to join the war — and he had received Israeli assurances that Jordan's territory would not be attacked if Jordan stayed out. He joined anyway, convinced by Egyptian reports of great victories. Within hours, Israel destroyed his air force on the ground. He later called his decision to enter the 1967 war the greatest mistake of his reign.
June 5–7, 1967 · 1,800 total casualties
The capture of the Old City and the Western Wall was Israel's most emotionally charged moment of the war — the fulfillment of a 2,000-year longing. But it also created an unresolved problem: what to do with the Palestinian Arabs of the West Bank. The occupation of the West Bank that began in 1967 became Israel's most enduring political and military challenge.
November 14, 1935
🌅 Birth
Born in Amman, Transjordan
1952–1955
📚 Education
Educated at Harrow and Royal Military Academy Sandhurst
July 1951
milestone
Stood beside grandfather Abdullah I when he was assassinated at Al-Aqsa
June 5–7, 1967
⚔️ Battle
Joined Six-Day War based on false Egyptian reports; lost West Bank in 3 days
July 26, 1994
milestone
Signed Wadi Araba Peace Treaty with Israel
February 7, 1999
✝️ Death
Died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma in Amman, age 63