A Mountain Was in Travail

2,500 Square Miles for Israel;
42,500 Square Miles for Abdullah

By OBSERVER

A mountain was in travail. The United Nations, the so-called peace loving nations, the self-styled free nations of the world, for almost two years busied themselves with the Palestinian problem. Committees and commissions, the General Assembly and the Security Council, all labored heavily. This fall the mammoth organization swam over the ocean from the metropolis of the New World, New York, to the metropolis of the Old World, Paris, where it resumed its ponderous deliberations on Palestine.

The mountain was in travail. For twenty months great nations, world powers, exalted statesmen, shrewd diplomats, presidents of states made declarations before their nations, before parliaments and congresses, to the press and on the air, concerning Palestine, its partition, the granting of statehood to the most ancient nation on earth. If the ticker tape with all these words were stretched in a straight line, it would reach the moon. If the pages of the articles and books that were published on their subject, and the cables and wires that were sent, were placed side by side, they would extend to the sun.

Then came the time for delivery in this great travail. The Secretary of State of the mightiest country in the world stepped forward and mounted the rostrum to address the delegates of fifty-eight nations. The press of the world and the radio carried his words; and millions, indeed hundreds of millions of people read them and listened to them in all parts of the world—in the Western Hemisphere, in the Eastern Hemisphere, people of the white race, the yellow race, the black race.

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Secretary of State Marshal supports the Bernadotte plan. This plan is actually the third partition of Palestine. The first partition was executed when Great Britain, without authorization, severed Transjordan—more than three-quarters of the land—from the territory of Palestine mandated to her by the 51 nations of the League of Nations for the creation of National Home for the Jews. This area Britain gave to an Arab emir, Abdullah, with the understanding that the land this side of Jordan should serve as the National Home.

The second partition took place with the vote of the United Nations Assembly on Nov. 29, 1947. The 11-nation commission that had been sent by the United Nations to investigate the Palestinian problem proposed that the remaining part of Palestine be divided between the Arabs and the Jews. The Jews were to receive about half, including the entire Negev; but before this proposal came to a vote in the General Assembly, part of the Negev was cut off and transferred to the Arab portion of Palestine. Under pressure of the desperate need of Jewish migrants from Europe, the Jewish community in Palestine, with the exception of the dissidents, accepted this sacrifice also.

The third partition is in the making with the late Count Bernadotte’s recommendation that the Negev be amputated—a recommendation so generous that it chops off with the Negev a part of the land of Judah.

What, then, remains? What do the nations clamor? About what do the papers print headlines? It is the hour of delivery for the mountain that was in travail.

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What remains is 2,500 square miles for the State of Israel. The State of New York can hold 21 such states as they offer for Israel; California has room for 63; Texas for 107 states of that size.

The Secretary of States is very generous. The President of the United States is exceedingly generous. The delegates of the nations are magnanimous. The freedom-loving nations of the world have an open hand.

Look at your common “gift.” You gave it with a feeling of greatness of mind and elevation of soul, these 2,500 square miles from an original 45,000 or from the more than 10,000 square miles on this side of the Jordan. To Abdullah—42,500 square miles; and to Israel—2,500 square miles. You “gave” it. The boys and girls of Israel fought for it, for the Negev and for Jerusalem, too; on the beaches, on the roads in the hills, on the streets, and bled and died. You gave them not one single gun to defend themselves.

Bells ring triumphantly in our soul; the sky is filled with angels rejoicing at our bounty and munificence. We have indemnified the martyred nation; we made good our bigotry, our negligence, our callousness.