UN Palestine Commission – Editorial comments from the Jewish press on Palestine question

UNITED NATIONS PALESTINE COMMISSION

EXCERPTS FROM THE JEWISH PRESS OF PALESTINE

(Note: With the exception of the material taken from the Palestine Post the following excerpts are quoted from the Palestine Press Review published .daily by the Public Information Office of tee Palestine Government for official use.)

1. Editorial in MISMAR, 12 January 1948:

“… There can be no doubt that the decisive test will come on May 15 when the Mandate will expire and the Arab States will be free to put into effect their threats, partly or wholly without risking a clash with the British Army.

“The most urgent political task at present is to set up the international force … Without an implementing force, the plan is of no practical value whatever … Our fate will depend, in the absence of an international garrison, on whether or not the Arab States will dare implicating themselves in a direct military invasion.:.

“The Jewish Agency Executive has not succeeded in securing the instruments which would turn the parliamentary victory into a tangible victory…”

2. Editorial in HABOKER, 3 February 1948:

“… At first sari thought that it was only the British Labour Government that was out to deceive us and surrender us to our enemy whom it helps both openly and secretly. But we later realize that America too is double-faced; after she had taken one step in our favour by helping in the reaching of the UNO partition decision, all hostile anti-Jewish forces in America, all the oil magnates and allies of Bevin are active again. However, the greatest disappointment has come from UNO itself…

“All the deliberations of the Implementation Commission have had no results. There are at present two urgent matters: the evacuation of a port and the question of security in the country. As for the first of these two matters, we have seen that the Commission has in fact put up with the negative attitude of Britain. As regards the second, it has observed silence in its monthly report, and submitted a special report. It is not difficult to imagine that a long time will pass until this report is submitted and until the Security Council takes a decision. Meanwhile the UNO decisions are not implemented and no action has so far been taken towards improving conditions in Palestine…”

3. Editorial in HAMASHKIF, 3 February 1948:

“It is no secret that the considerable deterioration of our political position abroad, particularly in the United States, is a direct result of the present state prevailing in Palestine. It is not war itself that helped anti-Jewish ministers in America to gain strength, but the fact that the initiative has been in the hands of the Arabs…

“Although those responsible for the security of the Yishuv have for the last few weeks been stating that the Yishuv would no longer be satisfied with measures of self-defense, conditions remain unchanged… The more we allow the initiative to remain with Arab gangs… the more our political position will deteriorate. The present security policy of the Yishuv, which is restricted to punitive measures, is dangerous to the Zionist cause.”

4. Editorial in AL_HAMISHMAR, 5 February 1948:

“… The full extent of Britain's enmity to the Jews is revealed in Sir Alexander Cadogan’s refusal, on behalf of the British Government, to sanction the formation of a Jewish militia. We need something more to counter with than Dr. Weiznann’s diplomatic niceties, or Mr. Goldman’s oratory, or the timid diplomatic caution of the Zionist leadership who are still hopeful of finding an approach to Bevin and Creech Jones. We have UNO’s unqualified support, for our right to an independent state… The practical criterion of the Commission’s goodwill will be the establishment of the Jewish militia and the supply of arms and military equipment. We must muster every vestige of power, strength and endurance…”

5. Editorial in the PALESTINE POST, 19 February 1948:

“There can be only one word – murder – for the recent operations in Palestine of the Arab Legion… The only foreign force in Palestine should be the one to be set up by the United Nations… The Arab Legion must go because it does not belong and never has belonged to Palestine, because it is patently not fulfilling its ostensible purpose of helping to maintain law and order…

6. Editorial in THE PALESTINE POST 19 February 1948:

“The moral (of the Ben Yehuda Street explosion) is that there is no longer confidence in the Government, in its ability to maintain law and order, in its declarations, whether issued in Jerusalem eat or London or Lake Success, in its control over its forces, in its inquiries into the conduct of those forces…

“Certainly not all, perhaps not many, of the British Army and Police in Palestine could lend themselves to the dastardly acts which, justifiably or not, have brought shame on the name of Britain in Palestine. Many of them have done their duty nobly and courageously, sometimes at the sacrifice of their lives. But… successive events have convinced the people of Palestine that among them are officers and men who are using their powers and their weapons in personal vendetta against a section of the population…

“If the government has still any regard for the peace of Jerusalem it will take… soldiers and its police away from the areas here they have failed in their sworn duty…”