Evening star., 1948-02-07
Anarchy Predicted
In Palestine May IS
As British Pull Out
Nothing Has Been Done
To Prepare for End Of
. Mandate, Observer Says
By Dorothy Thompson

Barely three months from now
on May 15-a frightful condition
will exist in one of the most critical
areas in the world: Palestine. On
that day the British will pull out,
and thereafter there will be no gov
eminent in Palestine. That is a
definition of anarchy. 1t has been
said that the partition of Palestine
is the first great "test" of the United
Nations. If so, God help the U. N.
For absolutely nothing has been
done to prepare for the conclusion
Of the British Mandate, which will
occur In the midst of bitter commu-
nal strife. Two weeks before 1t ends,
the Palestine COMMISSIONS Czech,
Bolivian, Dane, Filipino, and
Panamanian-are to move into and
take over an area whose disorders
have baff1ed and defeated the Brit
ish.
People ask: Who will enforce"
the partition decisions of the COM
mission? The prior question even to
that is: Who will govern? Two
Palestines are envisaged-a Jewish
and an Arab-but, at the same time,
the country is to remain an eco
nomic unit temporarily under an
economic board. Who will consti-
tute this board? 1t Is designedly
mixed Jewish and Arabian. But the
Arabs have given notice that they
will not cooperate or participate.
Then how will common services
be administered? Who, for in
stance. will take over the railroads,
civilian aviation, post Offices, Gus
toms?
Sixty-two per cent Of all native
Palestine government stats are
Arab. They have warned that when
the British go, they will quit. Has
the Palestine Commission any staff
to take over?
Want to Jump Clear.
Why are the British insisting on
pulling out within two weeks after
the commission arrives? Unques-
tionably because, being completely
stymied of a solution in their own
minds, they want to jump clear be-
fore hell breaks loose.
Who is going to police Palestine?
It is all very well to say: Send a
U. N. force There isn't any. III
any force goes, it will have to be the
force of one nation or several. But
does any nation have the foggiest
notion of what policing condition
of anarchy means? Any force must
carry out the instructions of gov
ernment. Where will be the gov
ernment? The five unfortunate fish
out-of water commissioners?
1t is impossible to fill administra-
tive positions wholly with Jews.
Those now Arab will have to oper-
ate in Arab territory. Would Jew
like to be a postmaster in an Arab
village? Or at the ticket office OF
an Arab depot?
The truth is that the U. N. As
sembly, having passed a resolution
and appointed a commission, has
started something that neither it
nor anybody else knows how to fin
ish.
The British have $4,000 to 10000
troops in Palestine. and a picked
police of $500 men-almost all OF
whom speak Hebrew, Arab, or both.
Britain is an old imperial power,
accustomed to deal with disorderly
colonial situations, and to train men
for the purpose. Has anyone else
such police? Il
The native Palestinian police is
q mixed force On May Is the
latter alone will remain. Who, then,
will guard Christians and Chris
tian properties in the Holy City,
including sacred treasures, which
are enormous?
The electricity of Palestine is sup
piled by private company largely
Jewish-oWned It's main power sta
ton is in the north, at the Syrian
and Trans-Jordan frontiers, wide
open to attack and sabotage.
In Jewish Palestine itself with |
officially 100000 Jews, and conceiv-
ably 100000, including the "illegals~
there are 100000 Arabs-a mighty
fifth column. Some Jewish colonies,
such as those in the Huleh area,
are islands in an Arab sea. Moth
ing whatever separates Arab Pales-
tine from Arab Syria, Transjordan-
la, Egypt and Lebanon. which are
as close as New Hampshire to Ver-
mont.
How about the Palestinian gov
ernment's hospitals and schools?
Jewish hospitals and schools are
administered by the Jewish Agency
The rest, though officially open to
Jews, are not patronized by them
and run by the government. What
happens when there is no govern
ment? The hospitals, incidentally,
are crowded with casualties. +.
Any One Can Defy U. N. ;
The theory right along has been i
that the Arabs would not dare : to t
defy the U. N. =, v
Why not? I should say that it
was a long sight easier to defy the q
United Nations than to defy the q
British, or for that matter, the State r
of Panama. These are sovereign T
realities, with genuine powers, while i
the U. N. is a mere phrase. Any one
can defy the u. N. You or could t
stand up IN IlmeS square UoI1oFIoW 6
and demand its dissolution and abo- $
lition, and be perfectly safe. e
Any nation can wash it's hands OF !,
terrorist bands and call them the 3
"enraged soul of the people But s
If any one thinks dealing with them Q
can be accomplished by a division
of GI Joes, he has another think. F
Armies can fight armies. But when :
1t comes to hunting down innocent :
looking kids with nitroglycerine in
their school bags and humble-ap-
pearing gentry with knives in their
sleeves, it's another matter-as the
British have found out.
Don't ask me what to do. I don't
know. I'm like the British in that.
But the people who started this
presumably must have known how
to finish it.
They have precious little time.
AS of the moment, I wouldn't write
life insurance for one member of
the commission, which is being
asked to do what nobody apparently
Er,ou,e how, RI do oyJ to ,icL tl,oir