ANOTHER BOMB IN JERUSALEM

Wanganui Chronicle, 25 February 1948, Page 4

ANOTHER BOMB IN JERUSALEM

| ’HE latest bomb outrage in Jerusalem which wrecked the fashionable Jewish shopping quarter is unhappily an augury of what must be expected from now on. The country is moving fast to internal warfare between the Arabs and the Jews and the latest bomb outrage may be considered to be the first big engagement between these two races. The tension which is being felt by the Jewish population is understandable. They are aware that an effort is being made to flood the country with immigrants of their own faith at a rate which is greater than the capacity of the country to. absorb them. They are aware, too, that Jewish policy has consolidated Arab opposition to both Jewish immigration and to the division of the country between the two rases. They are aware, also, that the British have decided to withdraw from the country and leave the ingrate Jew to his fate. They know, too, thet the international force has yet to be organised and brought into operation in a situation which must become increasingly difficult. They know further that many a British soldier has seen a wounded comrade in hospital murdered by Jewish ruffians, and the Jews of Jerusalem must be aware that there is rising with each cold blooded murder by their own compatriots a tide of hatred against Jews in the one country that has always given them asylum Small wonder that the Jewish populace, in Palestine accepted easily the fact that the British restraint had broken down and that the latest sabotage was an act of retaliation by the British. The circumstances seemed to add colour to the rumour. Unfortunately when minds are disturbed by a background that is dark and by an outlook that is ominous, the march of events seems to conspiie to provide opportunities for fears to arise.

The Jewish population of Palestine now finds itself in an atmosphere of isolation at the time of its greatest neril. Their morale is being subjected- to the severest testing.