1 OCTOBER 1954, Page 4

Israel's Peace Offer

Any peace proposal from Israel is good, if only because it indicates that those who advise patience and moderation are holding their own against those who advise violence as a solution to that country's predicament. To this extent the Israeli New Year broadcast last Sunday, offering the Arabs port facilities at Haifa, transit across Israeli territory and com- pensation to the refugees as part of a peace settlement, is greatly to be welcomed. But proposals that would have to form part of a general peace treaty between Israel and the Arab states are, in another sense, irrelevant to the immediate situation. They are irrelevant because the Arabs are not yet prepared to acknowledge by a peace treaty, or by raising the boycott, or by opening the frontiers, the existence of the State of Israel. At their most forthcoming, they have said that only by the fulfilment of the 1947 UN resolution, which stipulated not merely the compensation but the repatriation of the refugees, and the internationalisation of Jerusalem (which the Jews declared two years ago to be the national capital of Israel) could Israel hope to gain peace. These conditions are unlikely to be met by the Israelis, and even if they were, there is little reason to suppose that the Arabs would then make peace. For historical, emotional and hard economic reasons, they are still convinced that Islam and Israel cannot co-exist. The establish- ment of a stable peace in the area, then,, must for the moment be counted unlikely, and with it any chance of success for an Israeli approach which implies the possibility of peace. What may be possible is a reduction in the perpetual disturbances along the frpntiers. If these could be checked, it might smooth the path to peace; if unchecked, they will lead to war. Here too, the Israeli government have recently been a little more forthcoming. They have invited General Burns, the new Chief of Staff of the UN truce supervisory commission, to make a study of conditions along the Jordan frontier and to attempt agreement on a precise demarcation line. There is also some reason to believe that they may return to the Mixed Armistice Commission when Colonel Hutchinson, the UN officer who so offended them in his handling of the Scorpion Pass incident, retires next month.