ARABS ADAMANT

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26783, 28 May 1948, Page 5

ARABS ADAMANT

Continuation of Palestine Struggle

REPLY TO TRUCE PROPOSALS

New Zealand Press Association—Copyright. Rec. 10 p.m. LONDON, May 27. “ The Arabs will continue the fight until Palestine has been established as a unified Arab State,” said the Secretarygeneraldf the Arab League, Azzam Pasha, on his arrival in Cairo from Amman. “ Nothing whatever will change our determination in this respect.” Giving the background to the Arab reply to the Security Council’s truce proposals, The Times special correspondent in Amman, in a long despatch received in London last night, emphasised that the Arab desire for peace has never been hidden but, they ask, what is the object of the suggested trace? If they accept a cease-fire what will be its basis? Will the Security Council guarantee that during its operation the Zionists will not re-arm, will not bring in immigrants and other reinforcements and supplies, and will not generally prepare for a resumption of the struggle? The Arabs are fighting against the partition of Palestine —that and that only is why their armies are in Palestine. Is this truce, they ask, merely to be a pause in their fight or does it enable them to reopen the whole question of the future of Palestine?

The Arabs feel that they are being put on the spot; that they are being made responsible for peace or war in Palestine; that they have been cast for the role of aggressors. They are the savage beasts which, when attacked, defend themselves. The Arabs do not make, and never have made, a secret of their weaknesses. It was not the Arabs, they say, who armed and prepared for years for the domination of Palestine. It was not the Arabs who built pillboxes and fortified “ settlements.” but they are now being made the defendants. The Arab League representatives are not dictators but behind them is public opinion that will sweep •them away if they compound with Zionism, and their successors will certainly not be more compliant than they are. . The League’s position is simple. It refuses to accept the Zionist State in Palestine; it believes that UNO resolved to establish the Zionist State; and it also believes that the United States is not only putting its whole weight behind Zionism but is using its powerful influence on UNO members to do the same. Therefore, so far as UNO is concerned, the Arab League attitude is one of suspicion and despair—suspicion of its proposals, and despair of ever obtaining justice from it.