Sharply criticizing the manner in which leaders of Israel collective settlements organized their defense against border infiltrators, Maj. Gen. Vagn Bennike, former Chief of Staff of the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization in Palestine, yesterday told a Danish newspaper that it was his opinion that the Palestine trouble seemed “more organized” by Israelis than by Arabs.
He added that he did not believe that the Israel Government inspired the trouble, but went on to say, “the leaders of the collective farms along the border are organized for what they call self-defense. Naturally, it is not very pleasant for the Jews to have armed Arabs roaming around on Israeli soil at night.”
Gen. Bennike described it as natural that most incidents took place on Israel territory, saying, “after all, the Arabs are the ones to suffer from the fact that the line has been drawn across their lands.”
The Copenhagen newspaper quoted Gen. Bennike as follows: “I was very much pro-Jewish when I got to Palestine. But Danish newspaper readers are not getting a true picture of what is going on. Jewish viewpoints are predominating. The Arabs have not got the diplomatic web that the Jews have and they have not, like the Jews, money to finance information activity.”
Gen. Bennike was also quoted as having expressed the opinion that it “undoubtedly would have been more peaceful if another place on the globe than Palestine had been found for the Jews to build up their nation.”
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.
