Jews Accuse Arabs Of Launching An Attack

Greymouth Evening Star, 16 August 1948, Page 5

Jews Accuse Arabs Of Launching An Attack

(Rec. 10.25 a.m.) JERUSALEM, August 15.

An Israeli Army communique claimed that the Arabs launched a general attack along the entire Jerusalem front at dawn today. The objectives were, first, Ramat Rahel, a Jewish settlement on the Jerusalem-Bethlehem road; secondly, Mount Zion, where Israeli forces are entrenched before the walled Old City; thirdly, Beith Israel, in the northern sector of Jerusalem. Israeli troops fired on Arab concentrations and gunfire rolled over the citv for two hours.

Colonel M. C. Walker, British Conservative Party secretary, has reached Jerusalem on “hush-hush” business, says Reuter’s Jerusalem correspondent. Colonel Walker is the first British politician to visit Palestine since the end of the mandate. He refused to say why he is here, but said he had come at the personal invitation of Mr Moshe Shertok, the Israeli Foreign Minister.

Report to Mr Eden Jewish sources say that Colonel Walker will report back to Mr Eden on the Palestine situation. It is understood that he has already talked with King Farouk in Egypt and King Abdullah in Amman. The Transjordan Legion accused the Jews of flying, troops and arms to Palestine, and landing them at a potash company settlement at the

.-outhern end of the Dead Sea, says the Associated Press Amman correspondent. The legion sought an immediate investigation by the United Nations’ truce observers.

The French police announced that 355 Jews, believed to be the advance party of 4000 who fled from the camps at Oldenburg, arrived at Baudot, near Marseilles. The Oldenburg Jews were those who attempted to reach Palestine last year.

Glubb, Pasha arrived at London by air for talks about Britain’s subsidy to Transjordan.

Sheikh Yusef Abu Gosh, aged 28, the first Arab to fight with the Jewish underground against the British and also against the Arabs in Palestine, publicly announced his allegiance to Israel’s cause, says Renter’s Jerusalem correspondent. Fifteen Jews and Arabs held a feast to thank the sheikh for “his services to Palestine.”

“Israel Must be Prepared” The Israeli Prime Minister (Mr David Ben-Gurion) told the world council of Israel’s Labour Party that Israel was not prepared to accept an unlimited truce and suffer invading armies on Palestine soil. If the United Nations was unable to carry out its own decision and compel the Arab States to withdraw their armies from the whole of Palestine, then the Jews would have to carry it out themselves. The presence of foreign armies threatened Israel’s existence and was a breach cl' international law. Israel must be prepared for a renewal of war. The Israeli Foreign Minister (Mr Moshe Shertok) said: “It is impossible to continue with a never-end-ing truce. We appeal to the United Nations to end the truce, which is neither peace nor war.” It is reliably reported that Count Bernadotte has ordered his observers in Palestine to investigate an Arab complaint that Jewish extremists are tunnelling under Arab positions in the Old City.

Jerusalem's Water Supply. The Tel Aviv correspondent of The Times says that enough water to alleviate distress is now reaching the Jewish quarter of Jerusalem by an emergency pipeline recently laid in secret by Israeli forces across the Judean Hills. Reuter’s Damascus • correspondent says that Syria, has lodged a protest with Count Bernadotte alleging that Haganah troops attacked and looted the Syrian Consulate in Haifa. Bombs Found On Planes Destined For Cairo (Rec. 10.15 a.m.) VENICE, August 15. Guards at the San Nicoletto airport discovered five bombs fixed on the wings of two big three-engined Machetti planes due to be handed shortly to the Egyptian Saide Company for the Rome-Cairo night passenger service. The authorities said they thought the attempt to blow up the planes might have been the work of Jewish terrorist organisations.