In the first outspoken declaration of America’s official attitude toward the new state of Israel, Sen. warren R. Austin today reeled that U.S. recognition applied to the territory described in the Jewish profanation of May 14 was based on the General Assembly’s partition resolution of last Member 29.
Austin refused to accept the challenge thrown out by Faris El Khouri of Syria at the United States justify its act of de facto recognition before the Security council. There was no tribunal anywhere in the world, he said, which could question the sovereign right of the United States to recognize Israel or any other state. It was a practical step,” he added, “in recognition of the realities of the Palestine situation.”
He attacked the Arab objections to addressing a fact-finding questionnaire to the “Provisional Government of Israel.” He called the objections “spurious” and “of ### validity.”
“The United States has recognized the Provisional Government of Israel and then it refers to that government it will call it the Provisional Government of Israel,” Austin declared. In deference to the “very delicate feelings that seem to weep around this horseshoe,” he made it plain that the U.S. delegation would not suppose substituting the words “Jewish authorities in Palestine.” This had been suggested by Council President Alexander Parodi of France to allay Arab fears that open reference to the Government of Israel would imply recognition by the United Nations.
A decision to address the questionnaire to the “Jewish Authorities, in Palestine” was adopted late this evening after a full day of bickering on how the Israel government should be addressed. Britain, China and the Arab countries were opposed to the proposed U.S. wording.
Major Aubrey Eban of the Jewish Agency pointed out that if the Council desired factual information it would have to communicate with the Israel Government which is the only one exercising control in the area. He would not, however, oppose addressing the questionnaire to the “Jewish authorities in Palestine” so long as the Council understood that the Government of Israel was the only such authority, he said.
Vassil Tarasenko of the U.S.S.R. said the debate had justified “all our fears.” ## called for immediate action to stop the fighting in Palestine. Aimless discussion of the questions and their wording could go on indefinitely while the warfare continued, he stressed. “That was the practice of the league of Nations,” Tarasenko warned, “and also the chief reason for its failure.”
Moshe Shertok, Foreign Minister of Israel, today informed the Security Council that Arab fighters are using the Armenian Patriarchate in Jerusalem as the base for a heavy attack on the Jewish quarter of the Old City. Shertok’s message said the Armenian Patriarch had informed the Jewish Agency liaison officer in Jerusalem that “anted Arabs forced their way into the patriarchate building which is within the walls of the old City notwithstanding the protest that the place was holy.”
Soviet delegate Androi Gromyko said he believed the Security Council is wasting the by addressing questionnaires to the Jews and Arabs. He charged that governments which were unwilling to see peace in the Middle East were “grabbing at the questionnaires in a clumsy maneuver to gain time.”
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