The Canadian Press is becoming more outspoken in its demand that the Canadian Government grant immediate recognition to the new state of Israel and many Canadian newspapers are suggesting to the British Government that it change its attitude toward the Jewish state.
“Sooner or later,” says the Halifax Chronicle, “it will be necessary for” the British Government to recognize the state of Israel.” There are good reasons why a de facto recognition should be made soon,” it adds. “The strongest of these reasons is that to recognize Israel is to recognize a fact. Since May 15 a state has in fact existed and has exercised effective control over a large part of Palestine. It is delimited not by the intricate and sometimes unrealistic frontiers drawn by the United Nations Assembly but by the positions which the armed forces of Israel are holding,” the Chronicle says. “While these are not yet static, they are solid enough; they would hold even if general fighting breaks out again,” it emphasizes.
The Ottawa Citizen declared: “As one of the countries responsible, through its support of Palestine partition, for the establishment of the Provisional Government of Israel, Canada has proceeded with perhaps too much caution in taking the logical next step: recognition of the new state. The Canadian Government’s arguments against recognition at this time may seem strong, but they are not strong enough to outweigh the fact that in the United Nations, Canada supported the decision which gave birth to a Jewish state in Palestine.”
The Toronto Globe and Mail asks: “What reason has Canada, after its vote in favor of partition, for snubbing the Jewish state? Neither St. Laurent nor any other member of the Cabinet has given the answer. Mr. St. Laurent in a recent speech encouraged us to believe that Canada had at last a foreign policy of its own based on certain clear principles and aims. In the absence of an explanation of Canada’s inconsistent actions on the Palestine question, that speech will have to be discounted as mere rhetoric and it will have to be assumed that the government has relapsed into do-nothing, know-nothing, evasive policy of ‘no commitments.'”
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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.
