Jewish Press in U.S. United in Attacking Attlee’s Conditions on Palestine Entry

The entire Yiddish press in the United States takes issue today with Prime Minister Clement R. Attlee’s stipulation that 100,000 displaced Jews will be admitted to Palestine only if the “illegal armies” there disband and surrender their arms.

The Jewish Day terms Attlee’s statement “England’s newest treachery against Jews” and points out that “never before did England demonstrate its hypocrisy with regard to the Jews as in this statement.” Commenting on the report of the Anglo-American committee, the paper says that by rejecting the idea of a Jewish state “the member of the committee demand a high price from the Jewish people” for the recommendation to admit 100,000 Jews to Palestine.

The Jewish Morning Journal says that Attlee’s statement “cannot be interpreted as anything but an indication that Britain is far from agreeing on the recommendations of the inquiry committee, especially the recommendation to immediately admit 100,000 Jews to Palestine.” It warns England not to make the Palestine issue a “political ball.” The report of the inquiry committee “constitutes a heavy blow to the Jews” because it goes further than any reports previously issued in depriving Jews of their rights in Palestine, the paper declares.

The Jewish Daily Forward points out that the strongest point of the committee’s report is its proposal to admit immediately 100,000 Jews to Palestine, while its weakest point is the negative attitude to Jewish statehood. “Notwithstanding this negative attitude, it must be said that in weighing the good and the bad points of the report from a general Jewish standpoint, the former will outweigh the latter.”

The Jewish Morning Freiheit, a Communist paper, urges the rejection by Jews of the “imperialistic report” of the inquiry committee. It demands that Palestine be transferred to a temporary tripartite trusteeship of the United States, the Soviet Union and Britain, on behalf of the United Nations.

AMERICAN PRESS DIVIDED ON ATTLEE’S DEMANDS FOR U.S. SUPPORT

Leading American newspapers were divided today in their comment on the Attlee request for American financial and military aid in carrying out the recommendations of the inquiry committee. While some newspapers justified Attlee’s demand, others suggested that the entire Palestine issue be transferred to the United Nations for decision.

The New York Times said: “Fair-minded Americans will agree that this country cannot ask Great Britain to abrogates the white Paper, which represents British policy in Palestine, without assuming some responsibility for imposing a substitute policy involving grave risks of violence and disorder. After talking loudly and long about what should be done, after joining in an inquiry to find out if the American-proposed solution is practicable–for this is what the joint investigation amounts to–we cannot very well wash our hands of the consequences of our advise and our action.”

The New York Herald-Tribune commented: “It seems impossible for American spokesman to go on much longer trying to make political capital out of the miseries of the Jews and the tragedies of the Palestine dilemma without accepting any responsibility in the promises. If this nation’s influence is to produce anything save catastrophe, then it will have to place its power, prestige and if need be its troops behind the basic solutions which it is prepared to advocate.”

Among the papers which advocated the transfer of the Palestine issue to the United Nations were the New York World-Telegram which, at the same time, termed Attlee’s stand “slick politics, but poor statesmanship,” and the Christian Science Monitor which said that “British experience with the problem and American reluctance to take real responsibility both suggest the value of bringing the world organization into the Palestine picture.”