Truman Blocks Attempt of U.S. Delegation at U.N. to Back Sanctions Against Israel

President Truman stepped into the Palestine picture late yesterday to block an attempt by the United States delegation to force Israel to surrender its gains in the Negev by the threat of economic and diplomatic sanctions.

It was revealed in Paris today that the State Department decision to support the joint Anglo-Chinese resolution of yesterday, and the amendment submitted to it today, was taken without consulting or informing the President, who was thunderstruck when he arrived in New York yesterday to see headlines quoting a United States delegation spokesman in Paris to the effect that Washington is backing the threat by the U.N. Security Council of sanctions against Israel.

President Truman moved swiftly. According to indications here, obtained from unofficial but reliable sources, the President promptly dispatched instructions here to Secretary of State Marshall, ordering the Americans not to support the sanctions proposal.

(A report from Tel Aviv today said that Henry Morgenthau Jr. general chairman of the United Jewish Appeal who left Israel today for the United States, sent an appeal to Truman “beseeching” him to instruct the U.S. delegation at the United Nations to vote against the British-Chinese proposal recommending sanctions against Israel if the Israeli forces do not withdraw from newly-gained positions in the Negev.)

(State Department spokesman Michael J. McDernott today said he had no information regarding a press report from Paris that President Truman has instructed the U.S. delegation at the Paris U.N. meeting to vote against the Security Council resolution ordering Israel to give up positions gained in the Negev. Aides of the President, in New York on his campaign tour, also declined to comment.)