501.BB Palestine/3–2949
Memorandum by the Assistant Secretary of State for United Nations Affairs (Rusk) to the Secretary of State
Subject: Suggested Remarks for use in Conversation with the Foreign Minister of Israel.
Discussion
It is recommended that you request Mr. Moshe Sharett, the Foreign Minister of Israel, to call upon you to discuss this Government’s views with regard to an equitable settlement of the Palestine problem. Mr. Mark Ethridge, the United States Representative on the Palestine Conciliation Commission, urges again, in Beirut’s top secret telegram 149, March 28, attached (Tab A), that without pressure placed by the United States on Israel there can be no good result from the work of his Commission. He says that in the Middle East, since “we gave Israel birth”, we are blamed for her belligerence and her arrogance, and for the coldbloodedness of her attitude toward the refugees. He feels that a firm reiteration of the policy announced in the General Assembly by Dr. Jessup on territorial questions, and insistence that Israel abide by the Assembly’s resolution of December 11, 1948 as to refugees, would clear the atmosphere and bring a quick peace which Israel needs as badly as the Arabs. If you should see Mr. Sharett before the vote is taken in the forthcoming General Assembly on Israel’s admission to the United Nations, your representations would have greater effect. It is suggested that you might speak to the Israeli Foreign Minister along the following lines:
Final Territorial Settlement in Palestine
The United States Government has, observed with keen and continuing interest the progress being made toward the establishment of peace in Palestine, as illustrated by the armistice agreements which have been signed between Israel and Egypt on the one hand and Israel and the Lebanon on the other, and by the progress which is being made in the negotiation of an armistice between Israel and Trans-jordan. The United States Government hopes that armistice agreements will soon be signed between Israel and the remaining Arab States which have participated in the Palestine conflict, and is firmly convinced that there must be no new outbreak of hostilities in Palestine.
The United States Government is deeply interested in an equitable final settlement of the Palestine problem, and looks forward to the negotiations of such a settlement by the parties concerned. The position of the United States Government as regards a final territorial settlement, [Page 881] and as set forth by Dr. Philip Jessup in the United Nations General Assembly on November 20, 1948, is that Israel is entitled to the boundaries allotted to her by the General Assembly resolution of November 29, 1947, and that no changes should be made in these boundaries without the full consent of Israel. However, if Israel desires additions to this territory, i.e., areas allotted by the General Assembly resolution of November 29 to the Arabs, such as Western Galilee and Jaffa, which are now under Israeli military occupation, Israel should make territorial concessions elsewhere. The President has asked me to state to you his conviction that Israel is not entitled to keep both the areas allotted to it by the November 29 resolution and areas allotted to the Arabs by this resolution, and that Israel should make appropriate territorial compensation for any territory it seeks to retain beyond that allotted to the Jewish state by the November 29 resolution. Status of Jerusalem
The United States Government firmly supports the principle of the internationalization of the Jerusalem area, as recommended by the General Assembly resolutions of November 29, 1947 and December 11, 1948. The General Assembly resolution of December 11, 1948, stated that an international regime for Jerusalem “should provide for maximum local autonomy for distinctive groups consistent with the special international status of the Jerusalem area”. Under these circumstances, it would appear feasible that Jewish Jerusalem could be administered by Israel, perhaps as a trusteeship, and Arab Jerusalem by Transjordan on similar terms. However, in the opinion of the United States Government, it is essential that the Jerusalem area be placed under the overall supervision of some representation of the United Nations.
Palestinian Refugees
The United States Government is deeply concerned by the problem represented by the 800,000 Palestine refugees. The United States is counting heavily upon Israel to play a major role in the solution of this problem, not only in offering financial assistance in the resettlement of those refugees who do not desire to return to Israel, but also in the repatriation to Israel of a substantial number of the refugees. This Government regards such action on the part of Israel as a necessary condition to the establishment of a basis for cooperation between Israel and its neighbors.1
- In a memorandum of March 28 to the Secretary of State, Mr. Rusk examined the problems analyzed in this memorandum, except for the question of the Palestinian refugees, and recommended that Secretary Acheson discuss them with President Truman (501.BB Palestine/3–2849).↩