The importance of the time factor in the implementation of the United Nations partition decision was emphasized here today by elite Meirson, head of the political department of the Jerusalem section of the swish Agency, at a press conference here today.
Charging the British with playing into the hands of the Arabs, Mrs. Meirson called for the dispatch of an international force to check threats of invasion of Palestine from neighboring Arab countries. At the same time, she asked for the arming of the Jewish militia “for the sake of international security.” She emphasized what a Jewish provisional government can come into existence at any time from now on.
Moshe Shertok, head of the political department of the Agency executive, who was present at the conference, expressed the hope that the United Nations would support any action Jews may take in connection with the British refusal to open a port for Jewish immigration in the Jewish area of Palestine by February 1. He hinted that the Jews may reconsider their promise to participate in a joint Arab-Jewish economic Union if the Arabs, failing to set up their own state in a partitioned Palestine, ?nter into “questionable” alliances.
ARABS IN PALESTINE ANXIOUS TO LIVE IN PEACE; FEAR MUFTI’S WRATH
Mrs. Meirson, touching on Arab-Jewish relations, reported that many of the Arabs in Palestine are anxious to live in peace with the Jews, and that some of them would even be ready to form their own militia to help in the implementation of the U.N. partition decision. However, they fear the wrath of the ex-Mufti and his henchmen, she said.
“These pro-United Nations Arabs, as well as the Jewish defense, would be strengthened at the sight of a U.N. international police force,” she declared.She revealed that the Haganah is now embarked on a strategy of defense through attack, revealed the British had failed to liquidate Arab attacks.
Mrs. Meirson contrasted British failure to purge known Arab sniping hideouts on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv road, with British aptitude for sustained curfews and house-to-house searches of Jewish communities. Citing instances of British troops searching for Jewish arms, while at the same time displaying a lenient attitude toward the drabs, Mrs. Meirson said: “Not even our greatest pessimists expected this type of British neutrality.”
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