Evening star., 1948-05-14
Zero Hour in Palestine

Zero Hour in Palestine
Barring wholly unexpected last-minute
developments, midnight tonight will marx
the end of the 25-year -old British man
date in the Holy Land. At the same his
toric moment, the Zionists will formally
proclaim the existence of q new Jewish
state and the Arabs will set up their own
"civil administration" What will happen
thereafter no one can say with any GER
tainty at this time. All we can be sure OF
is that zero hour is imminent in Palestine
and that there is little the United Nations
can do during the remainder Of the day to
stay the course of events.
Just what those events will be-whether
they will be limited to sporadic and rela-
lively light fighting or whether they will
develop into all-out warfare of extreme
violence-is anybody's guess right now. In
many quarters the tendency has been to
expect the worst, and that Is why the
General Assembly of the United Nations
has been meeting in special session for the
past three weeks In an effort to create
some interim international authority to
maintain law and order after the mandate
ends and the British complete the with
drawal of their troops by August l.
But the U. NJ effort-undertaken at the
request of the United States after our on
again-off- again decision not to support
partition at this stage-has netted no
results worthy of the name. Our proposal
for truce and temporary trusteeship
has been abandoned as futile. The only
substitute being considered Is an arrange
ment calling for the appointment Of q
high commissioner who would have no real
power, but who would try his best to safe
guard the holy places, maintain essential
public services and mediate between the
Arabs and the Jews
At the moment, therefore, the situation
in Palestine may be summarized as fol-
lows: % Whatever its validity in terms
of international law, the Zionist proclama-
ton of separate state will take effect In
a matter of hours; (2) for the present, at
least, the Jews are in full physical control
Of that state region roughly the same
as the one recommended by the General
Assembly when 1t voted in favor OF parti-
tion last November: 80 the Arab League
Acknowledgement, Saudi Arabia, 1raq, Syria,
Lebanon, Trans-Jordan and Egypt-have
repeatedly indicated that they are de-
termined to invade the Holy Land with
their armies in order to smash the Jewish
program; a. with the mandates end and
the rapid withdrawal of British troops, 4
vacuum will exist where power and author
ity existed before, and 60 II the Arabs are
not blufflng and If they have the strength
to carry out their threats the way thus
will be open for chaos and full-scale war
endangering the general peace by inviting
the intervention Of Russia and other great
powers.
Within recent days, however, events have
tended to support the Zionist contention
that the Jews are in q position to defend
and maintain their projected new state.
To begin with, the Palestinian Arabs, in
terms of both temper and actual power, are
incapable Of fghting the well-trained
Jewish Hagana-a military force Of 5000
men. As for armies from the outside, the
Arab League nations have little real
strength. The only exception Is the
British-trained and ish-f1nanced 49,
o00-man Legion of King Abdullah Of
Trans-Jordan, whose ambitions have
aroused jealousy and suspicion in Syria,
Saudi Arabia and elsewhere. Moreover,
wholly apart from the questionable unity
Of their league, there is some reason to
believe that several Of these countries,
facing the possibility OF uprisings by the
discontented at home, are reluctant to
commit their troops to an invasion of the
Holy Land
1t would be folly, Of course, for either
the Zionists or the United Nations to read
too much into all this and assume that the
Arab League leaders have staged colossal
bluff and that their threatened invasion
will never take place. What needs to be
remembered is that public opinion In their
countries is passionately opposed to parti-
tioning, and it is opinion of q kind that
could force terrible explosion. Never
theless, the relative inaction and seeming
indecision Of the league gives rise to the
very real possibility that the worst
despite past expectations to the contrary
is not going to happen.
Accordingly as zero hour approaches,
there Is still hope for peace in the Holy
Land. And if that hope is fulfilled, all
that the U. N will need to do then is to
decide how and when to recognize the
new Jewish state and what course to
follow as regards the remainder of Pales-
tine Events within the next few weeks
should make clear whether the problem
thus will end brightly and nonviolently.
Meanwhile, the world can do little more
than keep its fingers crossed and pray for
the best
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