NEW APPROACH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26918, 2 November 1948, Page 5

NEW APPROACH

PALESTINE PROBLEM MOVE IN UNITED NATIONS MEDIATOR CIRCULATES PLAN 'N.Z.P.A—Copyright Rec. 11 p.m. PARIS, Nov. 1. According t 6 United Nations officials, moves have begun for a new approach to the Palestine problem, which it is hoped would save the Security Council’s face. It would permit the Arabs and Jews to negotiate their own settlement. The acting mediator, Dr Ralph Bunche, privately circulated Security Council members with the plan, which provides: First, the settlement of outstanding truce problems; secondly, an armistice, with terms including the demobilisation of the Jewish and Arab Armies; and thirdly, an Arab and Jewish agreement to negotiate a permanent peace, either directly or through the United Nations. Dr Bundle sounded out both the Arabs and Jews on the proposals, but the reactions have not been disclosed. Vacillating Policy Mr Henry Morgenthau, former Secretary of the United States Treasury, now general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal, slated that “ Russia needs no agents in Palestine or the Middle East, for the United Nations is doing tlie job for her.” He had just returned from a visit to Israel. He said: “ The vacillating policy of the United Nations has been most confusing for the Israeli people,. and must be a source of satisfaction to Russia. The Jewish people, if given the right, to establish themselves in the Mediterranean, would form a hard core of resistance to the spread of Communism. The Arab nations could not last one minute if they were not supplied Cease-fire Accepted London messages says the Israeli, Government has informed the United Nations headquarters in Haifa that it has accepted a new United Nations order for a cease-fire in Northern Palestine. It has instructed troops to stop fighting on the front. The Lebanese Government has now been asked by the United Nations to do likewise. An Israeli Government spokesman later said fighting had ceased on the front. United Nations observers on the Lebanese side of the front, however, reported that fighting was continuing in the area north-west of Lake Tiberias. The observers added that Jewish forces inside Lebanese terri-

tory had captured Madun-es-Rab, and were advancing towards Bint Jbeil. Jewish troops in the past two days’ operations in the Galilee area have seized control of 300 square miles of territory, says the Daily Telegraph’s correspondent in Tel-Aviv. An Israeli spokesman claimed that the entire area had been cleared of Arab forces. Fresh Israeli Units Reuter’s Tel-Aviv correspondent says that the spokesman added that for the first time the Israeli army had used Druse and Circassian units. Both these tribes live mainly in the Lebanese Mountains, and although the Druse are of Arab origin, they are sympathetic to the Israeli cause. The spokesman emphasised that the Jewish drive began only after the Arabs refused the United Nations order to withdraw. The defeated Arab army was the first force to invade Palestine in the Arab fight against partition. An Egyptian spokesman, alleging continued truce violations by the Israeli forces, said the Jews yesterday fired on Egyptian positions at El Mejdel, says the Associated Press and Reuter's correspondents. The Egyptians returned the fire. The spokesman also declared that two Jewish planes raided and machinegunned an Arab refugee camp.