Hussein bridges dangerous gap between people and the palace

AMMAN was decked out in Jordanian flags and gigantic portraits of King Hussein to celebrate the monarch's 61st birthday yesterday For most people it was a joyous occasion, a holiday before the weekly day of rest; a day when they could again feel in tune with their king. And for King Hussein, now 43 years on the throne in this turbulent land, it was a day to relax after bridging a dangerous gap in understanding between the palace and the people.

The estrangement began two years ago when he signed his unpopular peace treaty with Israel, and intensified when the king pushed ahead with normalisation of relations with Israel against the wishes of most Jordanians. A crisis point came in August when the government trebled the price of bread and animal fodder, precipitating two days of rioting in the south among the king's most loyal subjects.

Israeli tourists who flooded to Jordan soon after the peace agreement was signed in October 1994: now go elsewhere, and few goods cross the Jordan River bridges.

Creeping across the Allenby Bridge yesterday were a few lorry loads of cement bound for the Palestinian self rule enclaves, and bus loads of tourists whose passage was delayed by indifference and inefficiency at the Israeli immigration station. Before the peace treaty it usually took 2 1/2 hours for the trip to Amman to Jerusalem, now it can take four. The Jordanian border remains a hostile frontier, a wall against the dangerous hordes of the Arab hinterland.

King Hussein's reconciliation with the Palestinian Authority President, Mr Yasser Arafat, following the clashes in the occupied territories in September, has also helped to close the gap. The final coming together was clinched by three gestures made on the eve of the King's birthday.

Last Friday he went to the prison in Amman, pardoned a political prisoner, Mr Laith Shubeilat, who had served 10 months of a three year sentence for lese majeste, and then personally drove Mr Shubeilat to his mother's home in the capital.

Mr Shubeilat, president of the engineer's professional association and a former independent Islamist member of parliament, is very popular and his release was very well received.

But for the last two months the king has been sharply critical of the new Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, regaining the confidence and approval of his people. A Jordanian analyst said: "We have moved from belligerency to a functional peace. It is not yet a cold peace, like that between Israel and Egypt, but it is moving in that direction."

Although the public gave the king credit for distancing the kingdom from the Jewish state, a senior Jordanian political source said it happened because Israel lost interest in pursuing warm relations with Jordan: "We are too small a market to interest Israel, once peace opened up the vast markets of India, China and Indonesia to Israel, Israel did not bother with us."