President Truman,
State Department
and Israel
Read Commentator's
Column on Page 2
VOLUME 15—No. 17
CIE SW ISH NE S
A Weekly Review ~~~
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Israel Gets Jordan Range; British
-Asked to Pay Reparations to Jews
Direct JTA Teletype Wires to the Jewish News
TEL AVIV — Premier David Ben-Gurion and Foreign Minister Moshe Sharett
conferred with Israeli President Chaim Weizmann and reported to him on industrial
and political developments of the nation.
Government officials disclosed that under terms of the Israeli-Transjordan armistice,
a section of the Gilboa range would be transferred to Israel about the middle of next
month. The transfer had been scheduled to occur earlier but was delayed at the re-
quest of Transjordan because of the impending Arab harvest.
(The New York Tithes reported in a dispatch from Beirut that Transjordan plans to
carry on independent negotiations with Israel even if the United Nations Conciliation Com-
mission peace conference at Lausanne breaks down completely. The Times dispatch quoted as
its source for the report an "extremely well-inf ormed Arab source.")
—International Photo
Ashes in Israel: Placed in a glass casket, 30 urns containing
the ashes of 200,000 Jews, victims of Nazi atrocities in
Austria. , reach. the Lydda airport in Israel for burial in Jeru-
salem. outstanding Jewish leaders participated in the re-
burial services.
The Israeli Government will continue to do everything in its power to assure full
rights to the Arab population of the state, Behar Shitreet, Minister of Police, said
in Jaffa in ceremonies marking the termination of military administration of this for-
merly Arab town and the establishment of civil authority.
It was learned that Israel will demand reparations from the British for Jews
killed as a result of activities of the British army and police during the Mandate,
at the Anglo-Israeli financial talks now in progress here. The Jewish state also will
ask for a share of the German reparations which have fallen to Britain. Alexander
Knox Helm heads the British delegation and Mr. Sharett heads the Israeli mission
of six members.
Addressing the Mapai youth convention here, Mr. Sharett declared that the Jew-
ish state must have friendly relations with the American government despite the re-
cent "disputes and unjustified pressure." Mr. Sharett added : "We will never forget
the great help of the USSR and we will never concede the right of East European Jews
to immigrate to Israel."
Premier Ben-Gurion stated that Israel, through neutrality in world affairs, seeks
peace. Israel, he said, must take the best of each country and from the United States
it can learn the lesson of individual freedom. Much, he said, is to be learned from
Czechoslovakia and Russia without becoming a satellite of East or West. He stated:
"We do not believe the world is split in two—half black and half white. The be-
lief that there is a dispute only between East and West is untrue. There ,is, for in.
stance, a dispute between the Cominform states of Eastern Europe and Yugoslavia.
We believe peace is a possibility among all states and between blocs."
He said that Mapai for 50 years has been based on the principles of national and
social freedom, mutual aid and the brotherhood of man. Therefore, he said, others
Continued on Page 3
State Department's 'Outmoded Coloristic Policies'
Anti-Israel Trend Exposed by U. S. Senator Brewster
By MILTON FRIEDMAN
(Jewish News Washington Correspondent)
WASHINGTON—It would seem as if that
military monster, the brutal nation of Israel,
kicked out 800,000 poor Arabs and then invaded
the neighboring Arab states to which the refu-
gees fled, if one swallowed the current line in
Washington.
We have been listening to State Department
officials and to Mark Ethridge, former American
delegate to the United Nations Palestine Concili-
ation Commission, and to Ethridge's author-wife.
Listening to them makes one wonder who was
the aggressor and who really caused the dis-
placement of Palestine's Arab population.
To describe the problem properly we should
. refer to it as the Arabs' refugee problem instead
of the Arab refugee problem. The facts clearly
show that the Arab states instigated the flight
of Arabs from Israel while waging an aggressive
war against that state, thus creating the problem
which the American- Government has thrust on
the Jews.
Ethridge the "conciliator" was asked here about-
a talk on the Lausanne stalemate held between Aubrey
S. Eban, Israeli delegate to the United x:3
Nations, and Acting Secretary of
State James E.' Webb. "Conciliator"
Ethridge said; "I hope Eban rushed
out and advised the Israeli Govern-
ment to come up with the new pro-
posals." (Israel has already made a
number of concrete proposals to re-
patriate Arabs and to compromise
otherwise in achieving peace: The Friedman
Arab states made no definite offers leading to a solu-
tion. They presented an uncompromising united
front which demanded the unreasonable and unthink-
able readmission of all Arabs who deserted Israel in
an attempt to help defeat her). The buck was neatly
passed to Israel by Ethridge with the full backing of
the State Department.
The State Department said it was applying no
pressure on Israel other than a gentle reminder that
, America would like both sides to cooperate for peace.
President Truman said he sent no letters and the
State Department declined to comment on notes.
But Israeli Foreign Minister. Moshe Sharett com-
plained bitterly before the Knesset.
• Mrs. Ethridge, wife of the "conciliator," said it
was "very unfortunate" Israel was admitted to the
United Nations before agreeing to take back the
Arab refugees. She said there were 910,000 Arabs who
had fled or been "pushed out" of Israel by the Jews.
"They're living under worse conditions than the
Jews ever did," she said.
Rejoicing took place in the office of Ed Gossett,
viciously anti-Semitic Congressman from Texas, when
Mrs. Ethridge's words appeared in print. He cut out
the clipping and rushed over to the House of Rep-
resentatives. "Mr. Speaker," he shouted happily, "I
wish to place this news item in the Congressional
Record."
On the very same day Senator Owen Brewster,
a Maine Republican, arose in the Senate chamber.
His remarks were significant but for some reason
were ignored by the press. Sen. Brewster said:
"All of us know the sorry story of the American
attitude regarding Palestine, how we have changed
from one position to another, the
utterances of our succeeding Presi-
dents for the last 25 years, often
stultified by the action of the State
Department, and repeatedly nullified
by the subtle actions within the State
Department.
"However, we finally saw, with
profound gratification, the birth of
Israel. Now we are concerned as to
how their affairs shall be worked
out. Egypt proposes that Gaza, the
territory adjoining Egypt, now in Sen. Brewster
possession . of the Israelis, shall be
taken by Israel, along with 250,000 Arab refugees. The
Israelis agreed to that, agreeing to take the 250,000
Arab refugees, a rather large order, certainly. At that
point the representatives of the United Nations, under,
as we are told—and I think it is clear, from the
records—the leadership of the U. S. State Department,
vetoed that settlement, saying, 'No; you must settle
the whole question of the 800,000 Arab refugees.'
"It is a peculiar situation, because it was only
two years ago, as the members of this body well know,
that the State Department was saying that it was
utterly impossible to take 400,000 or 500,000 Jewish
refugees from Europe into Palestine. That was the
whole basis of the British mandatory veto and of
the attitude of our own Government, namely, that
Palestine could not absorb that many refugees.
"Yet now, when 500,000 Jewish refugees in
Europe are on their way to Palestine, at the rate
of 30,000 or more a month, and are being absorbed
by Israel, in spite of the declaration of our State
Department that it was impossible—as the report
of the International Refugee Organization shows,
they are going there under their own steam and as-
sistance, with what help we are able to give—sud-
denly our State Department assumes the position
that Israel must take not only 500,000 or 600,000
Jewish refugees from Europe, but also must absorb
800,000 Arabs from the Middle East. I believe this
is a tragedy and a travesty, and I believe the State
Department in sponsoring such a policy is display-
ing the same devious and indefensible attitude it
has displayed in the past in yielding to their im-
portunities.
"I say the proper solution is to use the area at
the mouths of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, where
the Garden of Eden once was. Under the British, sur-
veys have been made showing the entire practicality
of carrying out a development there for the coloni-
zation not only of the 800,000 Arabs, but also of all
other Arabs who desire to give up their nomadic life.
Nor does the development of such a plan require the
appropriation of millions of dollars by the United
States or large amounts of money by other countries,
because millions of dollars are now being paid to
Britain in oil royalties. If the State Department would
show half the solicitude for this problem, not only
for the Arabs and the Jews, but also for the Ameri-
can taxpayers, that it is displaying in behalf of the
dubious and devious policies it has hitherto pursued,
it would meet with the entire cooperation, I am sure,
of the oil companies, because they are vitally con-
cerned, more than anyone else, with preserving the
stability of their franchises in the Middle East.
"That is why I say that the American State
Department had better reconsider its policies, • the
discarded and outmoded colonistic policies of Ithe
British Foreign Office at NO. 10 Downingl'Street,
and begin to think in terms of America ancd'Ameri-
can foreign policy and of American foreign inter-
ests, and of solving the problem of Arab refugees
by the very simple solution which is so obviously
at hand, which will solve not only the problem of
Israel, not only the problem of the Arabs, but also
the problem of erecting the bulwarks in the Middle
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log g.tinst , the penetration of the Communist
(Copyright, 1949, Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Inc.)