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P»re Two
THE SOUTHERN ISRAELITE
Friday, December 31, 196
Behind UN Scenes by David Horowitz
Mystery at the UN
UNITED NATIONS (WUP) —
The United Nations is famous for
behind-the-scenes maneuverings.
Something happened this past
week on the “Palestine case”
which leaves matters rather mys
tified.
The mystery: How did the
Arabs manage to build up 47 in
adequate votes gained in the
. Special Political Committee to 91
in the Plenary of the General As
sembly on the rights of the ref
ugees to return to Israel?
In the Committee the vote on
this right was 47 in favor to 31
against with 17 abstentions. Al
though this passed in the Com
mittee, it was not enough for the
two-thirds vote needed in the Ple
nary. In the Plenary session there
were only 7 abstentions with Is
rael alone casting the single neg
ative vote.
Another mystery: In the Com
mittee the U. S. voted against its
own resolution because the Arab
right to repatriation was attached
in the form of pro-Arab amend
ments. In the Plenary, the U. S.
voted for the substance of the
Arab amendments without a word
of reference to this issue although
it did challenge the right of
UNWRA aid to any refugees who
become fighters in Ahmed Shu-
kairy’s “Palestine Liber a t i o n
Army.”
Mystery again: The Committee
made its decision on the renewal
of UNWRA for a three-year per
iod on November 17 and, con
trary to past procedures, its re
port did not come before the
Plenary session for ratification
until December 15 — about one
month later, or enough time to
give the Arabs a chance to mus
ter their forces for almost un
animous approval.
Still more mystery: The Com
mittee’s adopted resolution was
Savannah News
Mr. and Mrs. Murray L. Cohen
of Savannah announce the birth
of a daughter, Andrea Lyn, on
December 9.
Dr. Jules Victor Jr. was install
ed president of the Georgia Med
ical Society for 1966. He succeeds
Dr. Robert B. Gottschalk.
Dr. Murray C. Arkin has been
named president-elect of the med
ical staff at Memorial Hospital
for 1966. Dr. Irving Victor heads
the urology department and Dr.
Bernard Portman will head the
pediatrics department.
A. E. Rabhan has been elected
president of the B’nai B’rith Ja
cob Chevra Kadisha. Other of
ficers include Harry Ginsberg, Ben
Portman and Joe Rosenthal, vice
presidents; Norman Mirsky, trea
surer; Norman Robbins financial
secretary; Rabbi A. I. Aisenstock,
correspo n d i n g secretary, ana
Benjamin Garfunkel, recording
secretary. Isaac Berger was pre
sented a silver Kiddush cup foi
his service to the group.
Mrs. S. E. Starrells, a pas:
president of the Savannah Sec
tion National Council of Jewish
Women, was honored by the
group recently. Mrs. Starrels wii
be leaving Savannah.
Nelson
Brokerage
Co.
Atlanta, Ga.
dropped and in its place came a
surprise package — a completely
new draft submitted by Nigeria
which was adopted in less than
an hour with no chance for de
bate. The bet on this type of pro
cedure happening, given the his
tory of the UN, would be about
1000 to 1.
More mystery: Why was it Ni
geria that was given the behind-
the-scene chore to draft an en
tirely new resolution, completely
outside of the Committee and,
more importantly, on whose prod?
Nigeria couldn’t — and certainly
wouldn’t — have embarked on
this odd mission without any sup
port from one or several of the
Big Powers—and it wouldn’t be
France or the Soviet Union or
Small China.
In his observations on the Ni
gerian resolution, Ambassador
Michael Comay remarked to the
Plenary session that it “no longer
contains any reference to the al
leged ‘rights’ of the refugees.”
True, the specific terms were not
used, but the implication of such
‘rights’ are clearly indicated in
the Nigerian draft which refers
three times to the infamous Para
graph Eleven of the Partition res
olution. The Israeli Ambassador
himself noted this fact when he
said that “paragraph 11 is heavily
over-emphasized,” having “man
aged to get itself mentioned no
less than three times. Whatever
the reasons for this may have
been” he added, “we cannot re
gard the invocation of that para
graph as a substitute for a policy
or a program.”
Comay complained that the Ni
gerian resolution does not “con
fine itself to the humanitarian
and practical aspects of the ref
ugees problem. Instead it keeps
UN policy on this problem a
prisoner of a single paragraph
tom out of the context of a res
olution which, in its fifth para
graph, called upon the Govern
ments concerned ‘to seek agree
ments by negotiations conducted
either with the Conciliation Com
mission or directly with a view
to the final settlement of all
questions outstanding between
them.’ This provision,” he added,
“is completely ignored by the
present resolution.”
Ambassador Comay’s other re
marks on the lack of a complete
Arab victory must be taken in the
general context of the apparent
unwillingness of the Israeli Mis
sion here to come to an open
break with the U. S. on what ap
pears to be a switch of Washing
ton to appease the Arabs.
It is true, of course, that the
Arab victory was far from com
plete. Its biggest defeat was to
get a UN custodian on refugee
property in Israel. Also the big
Arab drive to brand Israel as an
‘imperialist state” fell rather flat
on deaf ears. And it should be
said for the U. S. that the Arabs
held a sword over its head with
the renewal of the UNWRA man
date. Arab cooperation is ab
solutely necessary if the relief is
going to work. Without this co
operation, a situation of anarchy
among the refugees could explode
■—just at a time when the Lib
eration Army” is wooing them.
Thus, as the 20th session closes,
one might say that generally speak
ing, Israel held its ground and
that no radical change has come
about in the status quo. In sim
pler words, the Israel-Arab dis
pute remains stalemated.
May 1966 Bring You Wonderful
Sincerest Greetings
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1966
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