BRITAIN CRITICIZED FOR NOT RESTRAINING JORDAN
On May 25. 1950, the great powers expressed ‘their deep interest and their desire to promote the establishment and maintenance of peace and stability in the area.’ On numerous occasions since that date the United States has repeatedly expressed its hope for peace in the Middle East. But instead of peace, there has been a long calendar of robbery and murder committed by the regular and irregular forces of Jordan against Israel farmers and townsfolk without respect to age and sex, on Israel soil. Not once during this period has any of the powers publicly expressed concern or regret and, indeed, the restraining influence of Britain on the actions of its Jordan ally has been sadly lacking.
“Now the powers propose the “strongest censure’ of Israel for one isolated act of desperate reprisal carried out by the husbands, brothers and fathers of woman and children murdered by Jordan bands. We do not condone the incident at Kibya, but we doubt whether Americans would have acted very differently in similar situations, as the whole history of our own frontier shows.
“While the great powers censure Israel they merely ‘request the Government of Jordan to continue and strengthen the measures which they are already taking to prevent such crossing’ of the armistice lines. The fact is the Government of Jordan and its armed forces, generaled and officered by British professional soldiers, has completely failed to hold its nationals in check and indeed there is every ground for stating that these depredations have been carried out as a matter of policy. But while Israel is strongly rebuked, Jordan’s guilt is condoned and whitewashed.”
Similar statements have been issued by Rabbi Irving Miller, president of the Zionist Organization of America; Rabbi Mordecai Kirshblum, president of the Mizrachi Organization of America; Harry T. Madison, national commander of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States; Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, and others.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
