Evening star., 1948-05-21

President Truman and Secretary of State
Marshall are weighing two unknown quantities
against each other.
On one side Of the scale is the domestic
political pressure behind the idea that we
should follow through on our recognition of
the birth Of the Jewish state by helping it
survive its infancy. This pressure is hard to
compute-it involves much more than the
Jewish vote. For the dramatic action of the
Palestine Jews in declaring themselves ma
ton fired the imagination Of many an Ameri-
can who, up to then, may have worried very
little about the Palestine problem. And the
drama has been sympathetically heightened
by the immediate invasion of the Holy Land
by Arab armies from surrounding states.
The even more imponderable quantity on
the other side Of the balance is, in word, the
Arab himself How strong and determined is
to defend their half of the partitioned state,
will the Arab lose interest in his "holy war"
and accept the situation? If the Arab is fur
ther provoked by tangible American aid to
Israel, will we lose the last vestige of his good
willard our Middle East oil supply?
Let us be clear about this. The two ball
ancing factors just described do not repre-
sent the opposing arguments as to what our
Palestine policy should be at the moment.
There are host of arguments on both sides,
idealistic as well as practical.
These two factors are singled out, however,
because the administrations decision on
whether to lift our so-called Middle East arms
embargo almost certainly will be influenced by
a judgment as to their relative weights. And
any development in the next few days clari-
flying or changing either of these factors could
make up the administrations mind on the
embargo question.
Embargo" Hit the Arabs.
Behind the pending decision lies as tangled
web of facts and considerations political, eco
nomic, strategic and psychological-as one
could hope not to encounter. In the confu-
sion, for example, almost everybody has for
gotten that when the United States suspended
the licensing Of arms shipments to the Middle
East last November IA, the effect of that "em-
bargo"-the only effect-was to halt armament
purchases here by the Arab countries. The
Palestine Jews were not affected. Up to last
Saturday, when the British ended their man
date and the Jewish state came into existence,
there was no way we could ship arms legally
to Jews in Palestine, embargo or no embargo.
There was, of course, no Jewish state as such,
and the British mandate government pro-
hibited the importing of arms by Jewish under
ground organizations.
We had, however, been selling arms to the
Arab states. The quantities were negligible
$7,258.34 worth in 1916 and the first ten months
Of 1947. But the clandestine war was coming
to a boil in Palestine, and Arab requests for
arms-export licenses in more substantial
amounts were pending. In this situation, act
ing under authority given him in the Neutral
ity Act of 1889 and the Export Import Control
Act of 1910, Gen. Marshall announced he would
grant no more licenses for the Middle East,
excepting only Turkey and Iran
It is true that at the same time we took
steps to tighten the barriers here against illegal
arms shipments to the then underground Jew
sh forces in Palestine. But the embargo de-
cision did not in itself affect the Jews in Pales-
tine until last week. Before that it merely pre-
vented them from doing something they had
never been able to do anyway.
The situation is. of course, very different
now that the Jewish government has been
recognized by us. The Jews now contend
Israel should be accorded, as a state, the right
which hitherto has been denied its people as
individuals-the same right to buy arms exer-
cised in the past by Arab countries. Under
treaties which still continue in force, they
further point out, the Arabs have been buying
arms from the British, who sdo not recognize
Israel and will not sell it arms These Arab
countries now are attacking Israel. Should
not the new state be afforded at least an equal
opportunity to procure the means of Defend
ing itself?
So runs the Jewish argument. 1t has logic
and force, and it leads to at least three logical
questions. Granting that the Jews of Palestine
have been handicapped in their efforts to
arm themselves, how badly have they done in
that respect as compared to the Arab states?
Granting that they need armament could it
be shipped from this country to Palestine in
time to do any good? And must they get the
arms here? All these questions are being asked
in official circles here.
They Have Been Able to Arm.
With respect to the first question, it is clear
that despite their difficulties the Palestine
Jews have been able to amass armament which
compares quite favorably with that which the
Arabs can use against them. Their greatest
present need seems to be for antiarcraft guns.
They are known to have received shipments
from this country similar to those intercepted
last winter-War material disguised, for in
stance as second hand machinery The Arabs
say, too, that arms for Palestine have gone
from the United States to a South American
nation, where they were shipped on to the
Holy Land. Some arms have been obtained
in Europe.
The Jews, apparently, were extraordinarily
successful in getting this stuff past British
authorities in Palestine Their spokesmen
here acknowledge that, while the Israelite
forces generally are weak in heavy armament,
they are holding airplanes and tanks in re-
serve for use at the strategic moment. How
these were smuggled into Palestine remains
secret.
At the same time, the strength of the at
tacking Arab forces seems exaggerated in the
popular mind here. They are not armies in
the modern sense. Trans-Jordan's Arab Le-
gion, with 40 British officers and British
subsidy, is perhaps an exception. Nevertheless,
for all the obstacles in their path, the Jews
probably can be said to have held their own
so far IN their ornaments race with the Arabs.
The words so far" are important, and they