Evening star., 1946-08-18
Palestine Moy Shift
Old Power BuIunce
Destinies of Many Millions of
People Are Seen at Stake
BIZ Wallace r. Deuel..

the Holy Land.
These tragedies cast their shadows
far out over the world. They darken
chancellories 10000 miles away.
The first victims of the new tragedies
will be Europe's tormented and desperate
Jews.
These are the starved, beaten, tor
tured and panic stricken survivors of
the whole people which Hitler almost
destroyed.
Now they push on blindly toward
Palestine which they consider their sole
hope of survival-and find the doors
closed in their faces.
But the Jews are not the only per-
sons involved in the new tragedies which
now threaten the Holy Land. 4
For the whole balance of world power
is shifting as result of what is happen
ing in Palestine and the destinies of
hundreds of millions of human beings
are at stake.
America and Britain are involved in
quarrel which weakens them both in
their dealings with every one else.
More important than this, American
and British support of zionism is driv-
ing the Arabs into the arms of the Rus
slams.
If this process goes too far, the Soviets
will become the masters of the whole
Middle East
They could then "cut the world In
two
They could shut off the great east
west highway that connects Europe
and the Far East through the Mediter-
ranean and Suez.
They could also cut off the United
States and Britain-and everyone else
in the world-from the precious oil of
the Middle East that is the life blood
Of armies, navies and air forces
What threatens to cause all these
consequences?
What is the real story" of what
is happening in Palestine?
The basic cause of the tragedy is
struggle among four great conflicting
world forces--America and Britain,
whose interests coincide; the Soviet
Union, world Jewry and the Arabs.
Why are these forces engaged in
such struggle?
There are two main reasons why
Palestine is of crucial Importance in
world politics:
/. It's location.
2. The fact that the religious, his
torical and patriotic passions of three
great world faiths center in this tiny
Holy Land - Christians, Jews and
Moslems.
Palestine lies at the crossroads of
empires and history, of the highways
that connect Europe and Asia and
Africa. The country that controls this
crossroads controls also much that hap
pens in all three of these continents
too.
The British Empire and common
wealth can survive in anything like their
present form only so long as they can
freely use these highways.
The country that controls Palestine
also controls access to the vast oil re-
serves of the Middle East.
But Palestine Is not just a pawn of
great power politics. It is also the Holy
Land OF Christians, Jews and Moslenls
alike. 1t is an Arab country now, and
long ago 1t was Jewish country.
Thus, anything that looks like threat
to the Arabs position there can set the
Arabs aflame all the way from Casa
blanca to the China Sea.
Anything that looks like a threat to
the Jewish position there can rouse all
world Jewry. Most especially it can
rouse Zionist Jews in the United States,
where the Jews make their wishes felt
at the polls just as everyone else does.
These, then, are the raw materials of
the tragedy.
materials have combined to cause the
present crisis:
The Zionist Jews know exactly what
they want. They are striving with pas
sionate singleness of purpose to achieve
it. They want Palestine. They want the
Holy Land to be Jewish state.
The Jews want Palestine because of
their deep religious and historical at
tachment to the country and because
they believe they will not be accepted
and cannot survive anywhere else.
But the Arabs want Palestine, too.
Both the Arabs in the Holy Land it.
self and those throughout the whole
Arab world want Palestine to be an
Arab state, not Jewish one
| The Arabs, MOI cover, strive to achieve
their aim with singleness of purpose
as passionate as that of the Jews.
The Russians too, know exactly what
they want, and they go about getting it
with coldblooded singleness of pur-
| pose.
| The Soviets want to control the
Middle East. They want to do this in
order to "cut the world-and the British
| Empire and commonwealth two"
and in order to shut off the United
| States and Britain and everyone else
from the oil of the Middle East.
| If the Soviets succeed in this, they
will enormously strengthen their own
| power in the world and disastrously
weaken the strength of the United
States and Britain.
| In this savage struggle for survival
and for power, America and Britain
have made mistake which has proved
almost fatal-they have tried to ac-
complish two different and conflicting
purposes. The result, thus far, has been
that they have accomplished neither
| one.
First, the major purpose of America
| and Britain in the Middle East is to