New York Post

TUESDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1948

One Against Seven



This Time David is Victor over Seven Goliaths

By OBSERVER

As children you must have read how David brought down the giant Goliath. You may or may not believe this story, but you must believe the story to which you were witnesses: it occurred in your time. The Jewish Community of Palestine, seven hundred thousand people, defeated seven Arab states. The British Empire gave the Arabs arms; the oil empire gave them money; and both gave them political support. But all to no avail.

A few weeks ago Major Gen. Riley, Chief of Staff to the Mediator in Palestine, declared in Paris that the Israelis are the masters in the field and that the Arab armies hold their lines, not because of their military strength, but because of the protection of the truce.

This is obvious enough. And Dr. Bunche, the Mediator, told me in Paris on Nov. 4, the day sanctions were almost imposed on Israel: “If not for the truce, where will the war and the Jewish advance end? In Beiruth and Damascus? Or even in Baghdad?”

* * *

In the first article in this column, which appeared thirteen months ago on Nov. 25, 1947, a few days before the partition resolution, your “Observer” wrote:

“In violation of the very principle on which the United Nations was created, the members of the Arab League proclaim that they will make war if the United Nations reaches a decision on Palestine contrary to their desires. Let us look at the potency of their threat. The truth of the matter is that the Arab states have military value only to the extent that they receive American and British. . . arms. The Hebrew population of Palestine, which played such a decisive role when the scales were evenly balanced at Alamein, could easily defend itself against the Arab nations if it had comparable equipment. The backwardness of the Arab people makes them poor contenders in modern warfare.”

* * *

Last October one of the most illustrious of America’s soldiers received in his office on a university campus a scholar in the field of history for a discussion on the Middle East, a discussion that involved reference to the maps before them. This soldier agreed that the war in Palestine demonstrated that the Arabs are not the military force they were supposed to be.

Only a few years ago, during the recent war, in March, 1944, another great soldier, also a five-star general, appeared before a closed session of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to urge the rejection of the Taft-Wagner Resolution, then before both House of Congress. This resolution called for the free entry of Jews into Palestine and for the ultimate establishment or a Jewish Commonwealth there.

The Chief of Staff had inquired of our military attaches in the Middle East whether they thought the passage of their resolution would be detrimental to the war effort. On the basis of their replies he earnestly asked for the rejection of the Palestine resolution or its indefinite postponement. This great respect for Arab military power, shared by many others, contributed to the sacrifice of one million persons, Jews trapped in Hungary and Romania.

* * *

Today David is again the victor over Goliath. This time the victory was won, not in a Canaanite field from where the tidings came to the holy penman, but in fields where war correspondents from many countries were present.

David picked up a stone from the ground and won his battle with Goliath. But the main weapon, today as then, is the love of a people for its country; a love against which thousands of years of dispersion were powerless; and millions of Arabs are powerless; and all the dollars of the oil kingdom are powerless; and all the cunning of the British Empire is powerless.