Hussein of Jordan Nasser to reclaim the Iraqi throne, but it was recalled after it was inside Iraq. Hussein, worried about a similar coup in Jordan, tightened martial law. American troops landed in both Lebanon and Jordan as a show of support for pro-Western regimes in the region against the Nasserist tide. By October, the situation had calmed, and Western troops were recalled. Hussein went on a vacation to Switzerland on 10 November. As he was flying his own plane over Syria, it was intercepted by two Syrian jets that attempted to attack. Hussein outmaneuvered the Syrians and survived the assassination attempt, landing
Hussein of Jordan through four turbulent decades of the Arab-Israel conflict and the Cold War, successfully balancing pressures from Arab nationalists, Soviet Union, Western countries and Israel. In 1980, an Israeli intelligence report described Hussein to be as "a man trapped on a bridge burning at both ends, with crocodiles in the river beneath him." Hussein considered the Palestinian issue to be the overriding national security issue, even after Jordan lost the West Bank in 1967 and after it renounced claims to it in 1988. Initially, Hussein attempted to unite both banks of the Jordan River as one people, but with the formation