The Israeli Prime Minister, Mr Benjamin Netanyahu, who was blamed by King Hussein for undoing years of painstaking peace efforts, and who once infuriated the king by sending Mossad hitmen on to the streets of the Jordanian capital, yesterday praised the late monarch as "a man of infinite courage who craved peace with all his soul".
Mr Netanyahu who, along with President Ezer Weizman will lead a sizeable Israeli delegation to today's funeral, convened a special cabinet session in honour of the king, asked ministers to stand for a minute's silence and, remarkably for the passing of a neighbouring leader, ordered flags around the country to be lowered to half-mast in mourning.
Mr Netanyahu's gracious response to the passing of the world's longest-ruling monarch mirrored that of his countryfolk: a desire to bid a warm and dignified farewell to a leader with whom they had once fought, continued sometimes to disagree, but respected and admired for his decency and his all-consuming desire to foster neighbourly relations in the Middle East.
Distraught by the death of the dependable monarch to the east, Israel is also anxious to see a smooth transition of power in Amman, since it depends on the Hashemite kingdom to serve as a buffer between it and Iraq, and as a partner in containing the Palestinians.
To that end, Israeli leaders were dismayed at the abrupt replacement of Prince Hassan as King Hussein's heir last month, and are carefully watching the new King Abdullah for signs of whether he intends to maintain his father's close alliance with them.
The early signals are positive. Mr Netanyahu has spoken by telephone to the new ruler, seen newspaper interviews in which King Abdullah has stressed the solidity of the 1994 peace treaty between the two states, and will have been delighted to receive an invitation to the funeral along with two former prime ministers, Mr Shimon Peres and Mr Yitzhak Shamir, Yitzhak Rabin's widow, Leah, and other officials.
Israeli newspapers had been speculating that the Prime Minister might not be welcome.
That speculation stemmed from the rocky relationship between King Hussein and Mr Netanyahu since 1996, a stark contrast to the brotherly ties between the king and the assassinated Mr Rabin that paved the way for the peace treaty.
While King Hussein pledged at Mr Rabin's funeral in November 1995 to leave "a similar legacy of peace", he twice wrote furious letters to Mr Netanyahu, subsequently publicised, in which he accused the Israeli leader of leading the region to the brink of further major bloodshed.
And he refused to meet Mr Netanyahu in September 1997 after the Prime Minister had approved an assassination attempt on Khaled Mashaal, an official of the Islamic militant group Hamas, in Amman.
The two Mossad hitmen were caught by the Jordanians, and only returned to Israel after Mr Netanyahu, at the king's insistence, had set free the Hamas spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, and other Palestinian prisoners.
Despite these strains, Israel's relations with Jordan are warmer than its ties with any other Arab state as a direct consequence of King Hussein's personal example.
Mr Netanyahu said of King Hussein yesterday: "There was no one more gracious, considerate and kind; no one more hospitable and generous; no one more capable of understanding and empathy . . . The peace between our peoples will be a testament to your abiding belief in lasting peace among the sons of Abraham."