Palestine Legacy
The last British troops have now left Palestine, a month before the date originally proposed for final evacuation. It can safely be said that during the past four years they have shown more courtesy and humanity than would have been found in the troops of any other nation in the face of continuous danger and abuse. Their legacy of preserving law and order has been left to the Arabs and Jews
themselves,- and it is not surprising to find the Zionists, at least, asserting their authority with a ruthless vigour which was never approached by the British authorities even under the most acute provocation. The reason for this apparent paradox is that the terrorists are as much a political as a military threat to the present Government of Israel. They are not simple thugs, but politicians with machine-guns. Their programme for a Jewish State in all Palestine and Transjordan is as attractive to Jewish youth as the means they use to attain it. The present Israeli Government is com- mitted to co-operation with the United Nations as long as co-opera.: tion has anything to offer, and for this reason it was shrewd to make use of the terrorists' open breach of the United Nations' truce as the occasion for a show-down. It is too early to say that the terrorists have been brought to heel ; they still form the nucleus of a State within a State as potentially dangerous to Israel as the Jewish Agency used to be to the Palestine Government. A renewal of the fighting in Palestine will give them their chance again. Unfortunately, as the four weeks' truce nears its close, the prospect of further fighting becomes more certain. With any luck, the discussions at Rhodes may prolong the truce a week or two, but it is very doubtful whether the politicians on either side can hold in check their eager armies much longer, even if they wanted to. And most of the politicians are almost as eager for the smell of powder as the troops.
Previous page
