The close strategic relations between Israel and…
September 1997 CE
The close strategic relations between Israel and Jordan fray in late September after Israeli Mossad intelligence agents use biological weapons try to assassinate Hamas leader Khaled Misha'al on Jordanian soil.
King Hussein, who only weeks before had been host to Mossad Chief Dani Yatom, feels betrayed.
It is, he says, as if a guest he had invited into his home had raped his daughter.
It is unclear how an antidote for the suspicious chemical agent that was injected into Misha'al's head by two Mossad agents was delivered to Jordan, but high-level contacts between Jordan, which now has two of the six Israeli agents in custody, and Israel results in some sort of a deal.
Israel supplies the antidote and soon after, to assuage King Hussein's wrath, Netanyahu is forced to pardon and release the jailed Hamas founder and spiritual leader, Sheikh Ahmad Yassin, whom Hussein had hoped to use as a lever to boost his influence on the West Bank.
Israel also agrees to allow Sheikh Yassin to return to Gaza and free some twenty-two Palestinian and Jordanian prisoners in return for her two agents, who had been carrying forged Canadian passports.