Israel and Arab delegates participating in the U.N. Conciliation Commission peace talks here were considerably surprised this weekend when Sir Desmond J.F. Morton, British deputy chairman of the Commission’s economic survey mission, who arrived here a few days ago from London, brought with him what is interpreted as a new British policy regarding the Middle East. Sir Desmond and Gordon R. Clapp, U.S. chairman of the mission, left for the Middle East last night.
The new policy can be summarized as follows: 1. Since a durable peace in the Middle East makes it imperative that all states in that area have as few alien minorities within their territories as possible, it is desirable that there not be a big Arab minority in Israel, nor a large Jewish minority in Iraq; 2. Although no figure is final, the British view seems to be that Israel’s offer to readmit no more than 100,000 Arab refugees is the maximum compatible with the Jewish state’s internal security; 3. Israel must compensate the Palestinian Arabs who have been displaced, but this compensation should be two-part–payment by Israel of a lump sum to the Arabs and the transfer to Israel of the more than 100,000 Jews now living in Iraq.
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