Foreign Off ice circles today reported that an agreement on general Anglo-American policy with regard to Palestine has been reached between the State Department and Sir Oliver Franks, British Ambassador to the U.S.
The agreement, it was stated, provides for the modification of the frontiers of the Jewish state set by the partition decision of the United Nations. Both Britain and the United States are said to have agreed on excluding the Negev, the southern Palestine desert, from the Jewish state, but beyond that it appears that nothing definite has teen decided other than that the frontiers shall be reconsidered.
There is strong pressure in London from the so-called “economist” group to persuade the Jews to exchange all of Palestine south, of Majdal for the whole of the Galilee. While this is favored by many Middle East experts, it has not yet been accepted by the British Cabinet. The views of the British Government on the frontiers of Israel remain uncommitted until military operations in Palestine come to an end.
Those who are acquainted with the sentiments of British experts reveal that the view of the Foreign Office is that no real peace is possible in Palestine until there has been what is described as “adequate blood-letting” which will make the Arabs realize that they cannot drive out the Jews and will also force the Jews to realize that they cannot have all the territory that the U.N. assigned to them.
At the same time, the Foreign Office view is that the Arabs have already received their “lessons” at Haifa and Jaffa, and with the proclamation of the state of Israel, but, on the other hand, the Jews have yet to receive a “constructive reprimand” at the hands of King Abdullah of Transjordan.
Highly authoritative sources today indicated that Abdullah la becoming “very ambitions and very difficult.” It appears that the King of Transjordan is no longer willing to accept the limitations proposed by the British should his Arab Legion capture all of Jerusalem. The British have proposed some kind of international authority alongside of Abdullah’s jurisdiction. But the Transjordan ruler is reported today no longer prepared to surrender Moslem rule over Jerusalem should his forces succeed in capturing all of it.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
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.
