MIDDLE EAST: Piecemeal Peace

As the U.N. battle of words stuttered to an inconclusive close in Paris, Jerusalem was having its first real peace in more than a year. It had come quickly and quietly and without benefit of U.N. orders. Meeting in Jerusalem’s white Government House (now a U.N. establishment), officers of Abdullah’s Arab Lesion had sat down with their opposite numbers from the Israeli army and in two-days had hammered out the terms of a “permanent” truce. They had also agreed to talk over the chances of a permanent peace. U.N. observers, playing the genial hosts, served countless tiny cups of Turkish coffee, and kept a large fire blazing in the conference room. Said one Israeli: “It helped keep the chill out of the room.”

War into Peace? In both the Old City and the New City, Jewish and Arab soldiers chatted amiably back & forth across narrow strips of no man’s land. One Arab Legion captain, lifting a glass of tea, called out: “May Allah grant that the end of the war come before my next glass of tea!” Near the Jaffa Gate, unarmed Legionnaires sat dangling their legs over the wall of the Old City. In the streets below, Arab soldiers were dancing, without swords, a Bedouin sword dance. Jewish and Arab civilians even staged a football match. The Israeli team won.

Peace was also on the march elsewhere in Palestine. On the northern front, where Israel’s army still held a strip of Lebanon, Arab villagers were doing a brisk business with Jewish troops in nylons and wrist watches smuggled from Beirut. Lebanese village muktars (village chiefs) were giving banquets for Israeli staff officers, who in turn supplied them with sugar and other foods scarce in Lebanon. At Beersheba in the Negeb desert, 19 sheiks, with a solemn signing with rings, had petitioned Israel for protection. An Arab leader in a Jaffa jail complained to his lawyer that he had been skipped in Israel’s recent census.

These were the faint stirrings of peace at the grass roots. Did it mean that peace would flourish in Palestine? Perhaps. But

David Ben-Gurion’s Israeli government and King Abdullah of Transjordan were watching each other closely.

Words into Action. When Abdullah a month ago advised the Jews to be “more reasonable” and the Arabs “to accept the logical,” Ben-Gurion was quick to reply. Said he: “I hope that Abdullah’s words will be promptly translated into action.” By last week, Abdullah’s work of translation was making progress. Meeting in Jericho, 500 Palestine Arab leaders had proclaimed him “King of all Palestine,” and demanded union with Transjordan. Cagey Abdullah took a modest line. He would consult with his government and other members of the Arab League. Last week his cabinet gave its consent, and this week Parliament voiced its unanimous approval. The rest of the Arab world howled treachery. Next to a strong Israel, a bigger and stronger Abdullah was the last thing they wanted. Cried Azzam Pasha, spokesman for the Arab League: “We must continue fighting to liberate Palestine . . .”

Just who would do the fighting was not clear. Abdullah’s move for annexation looked more like a step toward peace than a challenge to war. There was a good chance that peace, if only by bits & pieces, was returning to Palestine.