Evening star., 1947-10-11
Palestine and the Bio Two

If the Arab League governments are
really concentrating troops along the bor-
ders of Palestine, they are engaging in a
reckless and reprehensible effort to in
timidate the United Nations The complex
and explosive problem of the Holy Land
is now awaiting action in the General
Assembly, and it demands the calmest and
most objective kind of international de-
liberation. Any show of force or threat
OF force at such juncture can serve only
to stir up trouble and must be regarded
as form of blackmail violating the basic
principles of the u NJ Charter.
The Arab League is made up of seven
states-Lebanon, Syria, Trans-Jordan,
Iraq, Yemen, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.
With the exception of Trans Jordan, all
are members of the United Nations and
are therefore pledged to maintain peace
through international cooperation. But
they are certainly not living up to that
pledge if current reports are accurate On
the contrary-again assuming the &C
curacy of the reports-they are in effect
staging military demonstration to warn
the General Assembly against adopting
either the minority or majority recon-
mendations of the U. Ms Special Com
mittee on Palestine.
The minority proposal Is for federated
Arab-Jewish state under central gov
eminent. The majority one is for parti-
tioning that would create a separate Arab
state and a separate Jewish state. The
zionists find the latter plan acceptable,
but both are bitterly rejected by the Arabs,
and the reported troop movements have
all the earmarks of physical threat to
force the United Nations to reject them,
too, or invite the outbreak of warfare in
the Holy Land. With the British planning
to withdraw from the mandate at an early
date, the potentials of the situation thus
are serious In the extreme They will be
more serious still if our own Government
and the Soviet Union disagree funda-
mentally on how the problem should be
solved.
These are the two key powers in the
situation, but both have been slow to
define just where they stand. The real
significance Of the Arab threat cannot be
evaluated properly until the definition is
made unequivocally clear The threat
probably will diminish greatly if the
American and Soviet positions coincide
Otherwise, if they clash, peaceful settle
ment of the Holy Land issue-difncult to
achieve under the best OF circumstances
will be virtually impossible. In either case,
however whether there is to be agreement
or not, both Russia and our own country
whose first formal statement on the subject
Is before the United Nations today-must
tell the world exactly what they have in
mind.
As matters stand, the General Assembly
can do little more than mark time in try
ing to work out solution for Palestine.
Is there to be a partitioning or not? If
the final settlement still leaves the Jews
and Arabs violently at odds, will the
United Nations then impose it with armed
force? And if that is necessary, what
powers will take part in the enforcement
action, and to what extent? These questions
are crucial, but it will be pointless for the
U. N. to attempt answering them until
Russia as well as the United States declares
its views in language every one can under
stand The time is clearly at hand for that.