New York Press Divided over Secretary Marshall’s Support of Bernadotte’s Proposals

New York’s Lading newspapers were divided today over the U.S. Government’s announced support of Count Folke Bernadotte’s final recommendations to the U.N. regarding the solution of the Palestine problem.

Noting Secretary of State George C. Marshall’s comment on the report-that it is a generally fair basis for a settlement” — the N.Y. Times says in an editorial that “this compromise is not far away from a middle line between mutual concessions already advanced in quiet direct negotiations between Israel and at least some of the Arab states.”

The N.Y. Herald Tribune points out that the late U.N. mediator’s recognition of Israel is the core of his entire report. “It is also a sane answer to the Palestine problem,” the paper states. “The boundary question is open to endless debate, and port and airport facilities may he provided in any one of a number of satisfactory forms. Secretary Marshall has stated a policy which can he followed. It seems to this newspaper that it should now be followed with all firmness and consistency.”

The N.Y. Sun asserts that Count Bernadotte’s report “is not a magic formula that will instantly win support from both sides.” Declaring that the late mediator’s recommendations would provide a “geographic unity lacking under the previous proposal,” the Sun emphasizes that “as a major premise, Count Bernadotte stated that it must be accepted as a fact that the state of Israel exists and that whatever its trials it would continue to exist.”

The New York World Telegram stressed that “no neutral plan ever will carry more authority than that of the martyred Bernadotte.” The editorial agrees with Secretary of State Marshall and Foreign Secretary Bevin “that the Bernadotte plan should be approved by the U.N.”

The New York Post, charging that Secretary Marshall, “relying on the atmosphere of shock following the murder of Count Bernadotte, calls for a settlement on the terms of the anti-Israel program devised by the Count,” asserts that the late mediator’s report demands that Israel “surrender territory to the Arabs which Israel paid for with the lives of her citizens,”

JEWISH PRESS REGRETS MARSHALL’S BACKING OF MEDIATOR’S PLAN

The Jewish Daily Forward points up the fact that Bernadotte’s report unequivocally recognizes the existence of the state of Israel but believes that other aspects of the report–such as turning the Negev over to the Arabs and Galilee to the Jews–will be the basis for future negotiations.

In a front-page editorial entitled, “Betrayal,” the Jewish Day says “there is no other word with which to describe Secretary Marshall’s declaration that the U.S. supports the Bernadotte report in its entirety. Count Bernadotte’s recommendations could have been obtained from Foreign Secretary Ernest Bevin two years ago, before the entire problem was placed before the U.N.”

“The recommendations of the late U.N. mediator, Count Bernadotte, are a bitter disappointment to us,” the Jewish Morning Journal declares. “His recommendations regarding the future boundaries of Israel are absolutely unsatisfactory, and are completely in opposition to the original U.N. partition plan. It is to be regretted that Secretary Marshall has expressed himself in favor of Bernadotte’s recommendations.”