Robert Graves, former British mayor of Jerusalem, today defended the Israeli right to the Negev on the grounds that “they already dominate it,” and that “they will make something of it.” Writing in the Daily Mail, Graves adds that “in the hands of the Arabs its possibilities will never be exploited.
The former Jerusalem administrator also sees the value in trading the Negev for Jerusalem, suggesting that if the Jews get the Negev “it will perhaps be easier to insist on an international Jerusalem big enough to include Bethlehem.” He proposes that such a Jerusalem-Bethlehem area could be administered jointly by the Arabs add Jews, under international supervision. Graves insists that “there is no doubt that it could be done if there is a will to do it.”
Meanwhile, he suggests that Britain would “lose nothing by granting official recognition to Israel, which as the mediator realized has come to stay.”
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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.
