The Press TUESDAY, JULY 20, 1948. Palestine

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25551, 20 July 1948, Page 4

The Press TUESDAY, JULY 20, 1948. Palestine

From all the doubts and anxieties that beset the problem of Palestine one cause for solid satisfaction has emerged. The United Nations Security Council has at last shown the capacity to do what the world expects of it. Speaking with a new firmness and authority, it backed its demand for a cease-fire in Palestine with an unequivocal threat of sanctions. It defined these as “ economic “ or military ” sanctions. This could have been no more than a matter of form, because the Security Council still has no armed forces at its command and its prospects of acquiring them are even less hopeful now than when its Military Staff Committee reached a deadlock more than a year ago. The contestants in Palestine, however, are peculiarly vulnerable to economic sanctions. Neither side could continue hostilities for long without foreign help, mainly American in the case of the Jews and British in the case of the Arabs. The truce that has been established is precarious and uneasy. Nevertheless there is no reason to believe that it will be maintained less effectively than the month’s respite negotiated by Count Bernadotte. During that month there were surprisingly few incidents and breaches of the truce terms, considering the limited and disputed authority of the Israeli Government over some of the Jewish military and semi-military organisations and the very considerable proportion of primitive and ill-disciplined troops among the heterogeneous Arab forces. The negotiations which broke down at Rhodes have now to be resumed. They have, perhaps, a better prospect of success because recourse to arms is not now open to the parties as an easy alternative to negotiated agreement. At least the alternative, thanks to the Secu?ity Council’s firm stand, involves risks which may well be forbidding. If it was not clear before, it is certainly clear now, that any settlement must recognise the Jewish state. While there is reason to believe that some of the Arab leaders see this to be inevitable, it will not easily be accepted by their fanatical and belligerent followers. The boundaries of Israel should not necessarily be those fixed by the United Nations partition scheme. This plan has its weaknesses and anomalies, as Count Bernadotte apparently has recognised in proposing plebiscites for certain areas and, incidentally, drawihg down upon himself Russian accusations of trying to wreck the partition plan. One of the most satisfactory features of recent developments over Palestine is the evidence of a measure of British-American accord on issues which not so long ago threatened to cause a disastrous breach between the two nations. It is assumed that each has used its diplomatic influence to reinforce the efforts of the United Nations mediator and the orders of the Security Council; but there is nothing to suggest yet that they have agreed on a common plan. Their respective interests in the Middle East are not so divergent as to make this impossible. Count Bernadotte, in his report to the Security Council and in public statements, has expressed his confidence that a settlement in Palestine can be effected. It will be effected the more easily once it is made, clear that Britain and the United States are no longer pulling in two different directions.