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UNITED NATIONS: Till the End of Time?

2 minute read
TIME

“There has always been and always will be one capital only—Jerusalem the Eternal,” cried Israel’s Premier David Ben-Gurion. “Thus it was 3,000 years ago and thus it will be, we believe, until the end of time.” Then, bluntly defying the U.N. demand for Jerusalem’s internationalization (TIME, Dec. 19), pugnacious Ben-Gurion moved the seat of his government from Tel Aviv to the Holy City.

The Israelis were unmoved by a polite but firm note from the U.S., which had opposed the U.N. internationalization plan as highhanded and unrealistic, but now warned Israel against an “inflammatory move.” The shift of Israel’s capital from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem had been long and carefully prepared; several government departments had quietly moved to the Holy City months ago. Last week, in his big black Cadillac, the Premier himself motored resolutely to Jerusalem. During his 90-minute drive through settlements along the way, hundreds of Israelis cheered him on.

Other officials followed him. This week the Knesset held its first session in the Jewish Agency building of Jerusalem’s New City. Most of the government started functioning in Jerusalem. But shrewd Ben-Gurion left his Foreign Ministry behind in Tel Aviv, sparing foreign diplomatic missions the embarrassment of having to decide whether or not to follow the Israel government to its new capital.

At Lake Success angry members of the U.N. Trusteeship Council, which was supposed to establish the international regime over Jerusalem, called for a strong stand against Israel’s truculence. Ben-Gurion’s government meanwhile was carrying on independent negotiations with Jordan’s cunning King Abdullah, whose Arab Legionnaires patrolled Jerusalem’s Old City, a stone’s throw from the blue & white flag flying over Ben-Gurion’s headquarters in the Eden Hotel.

Jordan and Israel pledged protection and access for all worshipers to Jerusalem’s religious shrines. There was even a chance that Jordan and Israel, united in opposing internationalization of the Holy City, might reach an overall peace settlement. “We will shed our blood for Jerusalem,” warned a Jordan spokesman. “Let the U.N. take heed.” Pointedly, Abdullah was spending each Friday, the Moslem Sabbath, in the Old City. “The U.N.,” he said during last week’s visit, “does not seem to know the reality of the situation, We oppose the [internationalization] resolution because it is impracticable.”

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