Arnold Toynbee, famous British historian, today urged Israel to help bring about peace with the Arab states by contracting its borders to the frontier limits set by the United Nations Palestine Partition Plan of 1947, and by permitting the entry into Israel of “all Arab refugees desiring to return.”
Arab refugees returning to Israel, Mr. Toynbee suggested, should receive from Israel the property they had left behind in Palestine when they fled the country. Those refugees not wanting to go to Israel would receive compensation, he proposed. On the Arab side, he said, they must “make the painful concession of accepting Israel’s permanent existence in their midst.”
This outline of an Arab-Israel “peace” plan was advanced by the historian in a letter published in “New Outlook,” a monthly Israeli periodical. Mr. Toynbee stressed that peace depends on conditions bearable to both sides, though “bearable conditions can still be very painful.”
From the Arab point of view, stated the writer, “the situation is clear: Peace means the payment of a painful price. Territory which was part of the Arab world will be recognized as a political loss. But Israel will also need to pay a painful price,” continued Mr. Toynbee, emphasizing that “she will be unable to obtain peace” without the conditions stated in the letter.
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.
