Double Jeopardy
PLO Strategy toward Israel and Jordan

Using original documents of the Palestine Liberation Organization, Susser establishes that PLO doctrine requires the takeover of Jordan as a prerequisite to destroying Israel. This ambition powers a central but usually neglected dynamic of the Arab-Israeli conflict, namely the Jordan-PLO rivalry, which boils down to "whether the competition will culminate in the 'Jordanization' of the Palestinians or the 'Palestinization' of the Jordanians." The rest of this short but extensively documented and finely argued monograph pursues the implications of the Jordan-PLO relationship, with special attention to their February 1985 accord. Susser argues that cooperation between the two parties cannot last long, for their goals are mutually exclusive. His analysis makes clear much that the conventional discussion omits and confuses, and is therefore very useful and highly recommended.