Count Folke Bernadotte, U.N. mediator arrived here today from Cairo and immediately began consultations with Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion and Foreign Minister Moshe Shertok on the possibility of establishing a permanent peace between the Jews and the Arabs.
The results of today’s conversation will be reported by Ben Gurion and Shertok to the Israeli Provisional, Council of Government which began meeting tonight to discuss political and military problems. The feeling growing among the members of the Council is that the cease-fire order is being implemented in a manner which is far more unfavorable to the Jews than to the Arabs.
The U.N. mediator is expected to remain in Tel Aviv for twenty-four hours. He seems to be mach more interested in peace talks than in implementing the cease-fire. However the, the Israeli Government has drawn up a long list of unsettled questions concerning the truce implementation which its representatives intend to raise with Bernadotte. One of the major questions is the opening up of the old Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road. Another one is the status of Mishmar Hayarden settlement which Israeli authorities claim was captured by Syrian troops after the cease-fire.
Shortly before the arrival of Bernadotte Tel Aviv had a 45-minute alert when two non-Israeli planes flew over the city. No bombs were dropped and no antiaircraft fire greeted the planes. It is believed that the planes were Egyptian, on a reconnaissance mission in preparation for a threatened Egyptian breaking of the cease-fire.
The United Nations military observers attached to mediator Count Folke Bernadotte’s staff yesterday opened an office in Tel Aviv. With the arrival yesterday of several new observers the staff now includes five American, two Frenchmen and one Belgian, under the command of an American colonel.
EGYPTIANS VIOLATE CEASE-FIRE ON SOUTHERN FRONT
Last night the Egyptians broke the truce in the Ishdud area, The Jews held
At the same time, a Lebanese anti-government underground radio broadcast the charge that the Lebanese and Syrian Governments have been moving troops across the Israeli border because there are no U.N. observer stationed on the frontier. The announcer declared that the Lebanese plan to move an additional 1,000 soldiers into Israel and the Syrians 2,000 within a week. A road curfew on civilian traffic has been imposed in Syria and Iraq to facilitate the movement of troops, the broad caster stated, adding that Saudi Arabian troops have arrived on the southern Palestine front this week.
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