Evening star., 1948-02-14
New Palestine Crisis
Holds Seed for War,
Miss Thompson Says
Clash Between Soviet
And u. S. Held Inevitable
If Both Send Troops
Bv Dorothy Thompson

IL ID cllt1lCiy POSc1UlC tlAdI WOAlO
War III will start in 80 days. I say
that soberly.
The place-if the illinitable Ca
tastrophe happens-will not be
Greece. 1t will be Palestine. And
the constellation of forces could not
be worse for the West.
The United States, under persist
ent internal political pressure, as
sembled in the United Nations AS
sembly the necessary votes for the
partition of Palestine into a Jewish
and an Arab state, though the Arabs
gave warning they would not accept
the decision, arguing that 1t had
no legality-that nothing In the
San Francisco Charter gave the
member powers the right to estab-
lish new states.
Partition plans nevertheless went
ahead and a Jewish state was
mapped out, which is practically In
defensible. 1t contains Arab en-
claves equal in population to half
the Jewish. It Is not a contiguous
entity. Except on the Mediterra-
mean seacoast, 600, 900 to 300, 900 Jews
are completely surrounded by Arab
states-with populations numbering
over 35,000,o00. These are sup
ported, to a greater or lesser degree,
by the entire Moslern world OF 200,-
100000.
U. s. Depends on Arab Oil.
Pan Arabia, while asking in the
U. N. that the partition question
be unrolled again, has given notice
that the withdrawal Of the British
on May IS and the arrival OF the
partition commission will be sig
nal for armed outbreaks.
1t is argued that there are no
formidable Arab armies, and that
aU. N. force could police partition
and keep peace. But 10000 to TO-
900 trained British troops and po-
lice admit failure. When they go,
there will be no Palestinlan govern
ment. for not all the force in the
world can make Palestinian Arabs
create a government. What Pales-
tine faces is not invasion by regu-
lar Arab armies, but guerrilla war
Now, the Marshall Plan, European
recovery, and American strategy ana
reserves are all dependent on Mid
die Eastern oil All the oil within
Europe is in the hands OF Russla's S
satellites. We cannot supply Eu-
ropes industries from here. We
haven't got the oil. 1t must come
from the Middle East. The main
pipeline runs from Iraq to Haifa IN
palestine. Though patrolled 1t is
easily susceptible to Arab sabotage,
and II it ceases to flow the Whole
American foreign policy breaks
down.
Police Force Plan Failed.
The original American recommerl-
dation that small states send po-
lice force to Palestine has four-
dered. All have refused. II the
United States alone sends one,
Arabs have given notice they Will
sabotage the old fields-afad we shall
be at war with the whole Arab
Moslem world.
The Security Council will meet In
a few days to consider the Pales-
tine commissions report on imple-
nentation. I believe Russia VIII
insist on carrying through and I'M
plementing the u. N. Assembly S
decision. If the United States re-
fuses a force, Russia probably Will
offer the Red Army, thus emerging
as the only supporter OF a U. N
decision actually engineered by the
United States, thereby winning the
support of world Jewry, half OF
whom are American citizens.
If the Red Army goes into Pales-
tine, it will not be to save the Jews
(Stalin once said that Russia doesn't
"pulI other peoples chestnuts out
of the flreD, but to defeat western
interests in the Middle East ano
drag down the Marshall Plan. For
whoever controls the Middle East
oil can strangle Europe.
Both Sides Intransigeant.
II both Russia and the United
States send armed forces, a clash
between them will-in my opinion
be inevitable. The Palestine issue
is, therefore, the most serious sltu-
alton in the world-perhaps the
most serious in human history.
1t can be fatal to the Jews, not
only in Palestine but also to the
tens of thousands OF them living
elsewhere in the Arab-Moslem
world.
But 1t also can be fatal for the
Arabs, who are threatened with be-
coming mere pawns in great power
struggle. ,-
Both Jews and Arabs have been
intransigeant. Yet both have every
thing to lose in the present situa-
ton. Is it, therefore, beyond hope
that they can get together in COM
promise?
tRelessed by the Bell Syndicate. 1nc.)