T he New Palestine Truce It is good news that the
Arabs should have agreed to another truce In Palestine, and the conditions which they attached to their acceptance must be regarded as both sensible and just. The last Mice worked to the advantage of the Zionists. The United Nations officials on the spot were not able to prevent the smuggling in of Jewish combatants or, it is reasonably believed, of foreign arms, whereas the Arabs had no means of securing reinforcements. In Jerusalem, the true enabled the Jews to convert a position of almost desperate siege into a local offensive. By asking that immigration should cease during the truce and that the thousands of displaced Arabs should return to their homes, the Arab League is merely trying to ensure that the hew truce should be less one-sided than the last. It is for Count Bernadotte to reconcile, if possible, these conditions with those which have already been attached by Israel to its acceptance of the new truce. If he fails, the second truce will be stillborn, and we shall be back where we were a fortnight ago. It is to be hoped, however, that the Count's tact will be able to use the double acceptance as a basis on which to negotiate a final settlement. Here he is likely to find Jewish intransigence even more of an obstacle than Arab obstinacy. The Jews are reluctant to abandon any of the conquests they have won by diplomacy or by arms ; yet it is clear that if there is to be any settlement in the Middle East they must be made to abandon most of their more extravagant claims and give effective guarantees that they will not overstep any agreed territorial or political bounds in the future. Unfortunately it looks as though the pace in Israel is being set by the terrorists, while the Israeli Government is afraid not to keep up with them. It is only thus that the deplorable incident of the kidnapping of the five British employees of the Jerusalem Electric Corporation can be explained. There would be more reason for confidence in the truce if the Israeli Government repudiated this act of hooliganism instead of condoning it.
