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UNITED NATIONS: Many Eyes, Many Motes

2 minute read
TIME

As Egyptian and Israeli delegates satdown last week to discuss armistice, in the ballroom of the Hotel des Roses, U.N. headquarters in Rhodes, they were faced with a gigantic mural of the original sin: a naked Adam & Eve, the serpent and the apple. A few minutes later, the U.N. mediator, Bible-minded Ralph Bunche, tossed them another allegory. Urging both sides to avoid recriminations and “picayunish” quarrels, he said: “There are many eyes here, and motes can be readily found in them.” He also warned “governments not involved” in the negotiations not to meddle. “Just a friendly tip to the British,” said one of his aides.

Thus admonished (and reassured), the delegates got off to a flying start. In two days they agreed on a six-point agenda, and approved an impressive armistice preamble in which they agreed to stop fighting, and to respect each other’s territory. Then they settled down to tackle the prickly questions of armistice frontiers, withdrawals and reduction of their armies in the Negeb desert. To give the Egyptians a prod, the Israelis announced that they were already holding armistice talks with the Lebanese, and were giving up control of Lebanese villages across the border.

Both sides agreed that the laurels, so far, should go to cheerful, determined Ralph Bunche. Like a solicitous duenna, he herded the delegates in & out of his personal suite, beamed on their cautious handshakes, protected them jealously from the press. He had also personally drafted the agenda of the conference and the armistice preamble, which one Israeli delegate called “a brilliant piece of statesmanship.” At week’s end, Bunche, still hard at work, was leaving the optimism to his aides. Cried one of them: “I expect to be on my way to Geneva by the middle of next week.” Said Bunche: “We still have the most difficult hurdles to take.”

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