Professor Nigel Ashton, who recently spoke to Jonathan Mok about the life and legacy of King Hussein, returns to answer questions about Benjamin Netanyahu’s recent speech and what it means for the future of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Jonathan Mok: How should the Netanyahu speech be interpreted?
Nigel Ashton: Beyond uttering the words ‘Palestinian state’ Netanyahu has not yet conceded the creation of an entity which would have genuine sovereignty. His concept of ‘demilitarisation’ is so wide ranging that any Palestinian state created under it could not be deemed to have full control over its territory and would therefore not be sovereign. Nevertheless, he has at least conceded that peace negotiations cannot proceed on the basis of his opening position which amounted to little more than a form of economic autonomy. So there has at least been some movement in his position even if so far this is limited.
JM: It appears that the Arab world has been silent in response to Bibi’s speech. How do you perceive the apparent lack of interest?
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Nigel Ashton’s latest book is entitled King Hussein of Jordan: A Political Life.
Jonathan Mok: Why and when did you get interested in the life of King Hussein?
Nigel Ashton: I’ve been interested in King Hussein ever since I was a PhD student back in the 1980s working on British and American policy in the Middle East during the Suez crisis. I was fascinated from an early stage by the way the King successfully negotiated a series of dangerous challenges to his position and the way in which he managed his relations with other powers in the region.
After King Hussein died in February 1999, I felt it was a good time to start researching a biography of him. Up to that point there had been no full biography written with the benefit of access to his papers and interviews with his close friends, family members, and confidants. Thereafter I made more than a dozen trips to Jordan between 1999 and 2007, carrying out a range of interviews with former political leaders and his close family members, including his wife Queen Noor and his eldest son, King Abdullah of Jordan.
Jonathan: King Hussein seemed never to employ anti-Semitic rhetoric to condemn the Israeli occupation and Jewish lobby in the United States. In fact, he was believed to be good terms with leaders such as Golda Meir and Yitzhak Rabin. How did the King view Jews and the Jewish state?
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November 3, 2008 – 11:17 pm
This is a review of Daniel Barenboim’s Everything is Connected: The Power of Music. Weidenfield & Nicolson. 2008.
A great number of tremendously gifted Jewish musicians occupy the highest places in the world of classical music. Lorin Maazel, Leronard Bernstein, James Levine and Daniel Barenboim are familiar names for any classical music fan.
Barenboim, however, stands out from the rest.
The former director of the Chicago Symphony and now the director of La Scala in Milan, Italy, Barenboim routinely condemns the excesses of the Israeli occupation and is interested in nurturing musical talents amongst Arabs as well as Jews. Read More »
August 14, 2008 – 2:26 pm
Introduction: He disturbed me, because he forced me to examine the reasons behind my hatred of my Chinese name (Ka Hon).
Mahmoud, Mahmoud,
Exile, separation and divorce,
You witnessed them at all,
Persecution, violence, killings,
You felt all. Read More »
