Israeli writer Avi Shlaim sees that the assassination of Hussein's grandfather King AbdullahI in Jerusalem was the most formative event in Hussein's life, as he had witnessed the event personally at the age of 15. Two years later, the 17-year-old schoolboy would become King. Hussein inherited the throne to a young Kingdom, whose neighbors questioned its legitimacy, along with the Jordanian-controlled West Bank. From an early age he had to shoulder a heavy responsibility. The Kingdom had few natural resources, and a large Palestinian refugee population. He was able to gain his country considerable political weight on a global scale despite its limited potential. 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 was able to survive 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.