The Nome nugget., 1948-03-03
Third World War Possible This Spring
(Bv Dorothy ThOmpSon)

lmtable catastrophe happens-will not be Greece It will be Palestine And the constellation of forces could not be worse for the west.
 The United States, under persistent internal political pressure assembled in the United Nations assembly the necessary votes for the partition of Palestine into Jew ish and an Arab state though the Arabs gave warning they would not accept the decison arguing that it had legalitythat nothing in the San Francisco charter gave the member powers the right to establish states
 Partition plans nevertheless went ahead and Jewish state was mapped out which is practically ndeensibe It contains Arab enclaves equal in population to half the Jewish It is not contiguous entity Except on the Mediterranean seacoast 6OO,0O0 to 100000 Jews are completely surrounded by Arab StateS-WIth pOpula tions numbering over 35 millions. These supported, to greater or lesser degree, by the entire Moslem world of 200 millions
 Pan Arabia while asking in the U N. that the parti tion question be unroed again. has given notice that the withdrawal of the British May 15 and the arrival of the partition commission will be signal for armed outbreaks.
 It is argued that there formidable Arab armies, and that U. N. force could police partition and keep peace But 1000 to 10000 trained British troops and police admit failure When they go, there will be Pal estinan government for not all the force in the world make Paestinian Arabs create government. What Palestine faces is not invasion by regular Arab armies, but guerrilla
 Now, the Marshall plan, European recovery, and American strategy and reserves are all dependent on middle eastern o All the oil within Europe is in the hands of Rssias satellites We supply Europes industries from here. We haven't got the oil It must from the middle east The main pipeline from Irak to Hafa in Palestine Though patroled it is easily susceptible to Arab sabotage and it ceases to flow the whole American foreign policy breaks down.
 The original American recommendation that small states send police force Palestine has foundered All have refused If the U S. alone sends one, Arabs have given notice they will sabotage the oil felds-and we shall be at war with the whole Arab-Mosem world,
 The security council will meet in few days to slider the Palestine commissions report implementa ton believe Russia will insist carrying through and impementing the U. N. assembly's decision If the U S. refuses force, Russia probably will offer the Red thus emerging the only supporter of U N de- csion actually engineered by the U s. thereby winning the support of world Jewry half of whom American citizens
 If the Red army goes to Palestine, it will not be to save the Jews (Staln said that Russia doesn't pu other peoples chesnuts out of the re but to defeat western interests in the middle east and drag down the Marshall plan For whoever controls the middle eastern oil can strange Europe.
 If both Russia and the U S. send armed forces clash between them wl-n my opinion-be inevitable. The Palestine issue s therefore, the most serious situation in the word-perhaps the most serious in human his- tory.
 It be fatal to the Jews not only in Palestine but