"Let the Echo Carry"

When [the Roman soldiers] went in numbers into the lanes of the city with their swords drawn, they slew those whom they overtook without mercy, and set fire to the houses whither the Jews were fled. . . . [They] made the whole city run with blood, to such a degree indeed that the fire of many of the houses was quenched with . . . blood. . . . And thus was Jerusalem taken in the second year of the reign of Vespasian.

Thus the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus, who had accompanied the besieging armies of the Roman commander Titus against Jewish rebels, recounted the second destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 A.D. The Jews never again held control of their Holy City.

Last week in Rome the Jews remembered Titus. From the D.P. camps around Rome, from the Hachsharot (collectives) where they were training for farm life in Palestine, from orphanages in Rome, 2,000 Jews gathered at the hated Arch of Titus with its bas-reliefs of Jerusalem's terror and Titus' triumphant entry. Cheering, singing, and weeping with joy, they marched under the Arch which commemorated their defeat. To the 20,000 Jewish refugees in Italy, the promised land looked a lot closer.

"Token of Protest." But even as they marched, blood was flowing again in the city of their dreams. From his temporary headquarters in Lebanon, Haj Amin el-Husseini, ex-Mufti of Jerusalem, called on Palestine's Arabs to stage a three-day protest strike against the U.N. partition decision.

Mobs of Jews and Arabs surged and countersurged through Old and New Jerusalem, killing, stoning, stabbing, burning, looting. Arab and Jewish slumdwellers along the dividing line of Jewish Tel Aviv and Arab Jaffa made armed forays into each other's quarters. Gunmen from rooftops covered arsonists while they put dwellings to the torch. Arab gangs waylaid Jewish buses on Palestine's roads. Jerusalem's water supply gave out as firemen fought blazes. Dr. Hussein F. Khalidi, secretary of the Mufti's Arab Higher Executive, then called off the strike, which he said was just a "token of protest" against the" U.N. decision. But he could not call a stop to violence.

By the end of a bloody week, 62 Jews and 32 Arabs had died of violence in Palestine. More than 200 were wounded. The sparks jumped to other points in the Middle East. In Aden enraged Arabs invaded the Jewish quarters. For 79 Jewish dead they paid with 43 dead of their own. In Bagdad, an Arab mob burned, smashed and looted the office of the U.S. Information Service. In Damascus, Beirut and Cairo, Arab mobs stoned U.S. business houses and schools.

"Lovely Word." Arab leaders insisted that the violence came from spontaneous mob feeling. "It is not our intention to clash with anyone at this stage," said Khalidi. Arabs were not yet ready for their coordinated war on Palestine's Jews (that would likely come when British troops withdraw). But they were preparing.

The Council of Ulema (sages) of Cairo's Al-Azhar University, which forms the spiritual leadership of present-day Islam, formally proclaimed the Jihad (holy war). "Know that Jihad has now become the duty for everyone which he should fulfill either through his own person or through his money," said the Ulema. "Anybody failing to fulfill such duty will be punished by Allah. Allah promised to give Paradise to Moslems who [participate]. . . . Let the echo of your voice carry from East to West the lovely word which is dear to the faithful--Jihad, Jihad, Jihad--and Allah be with you."

Delegates from the seven Arab League states gathered in Cairo to discuss formal war plans. Arab League Secretary-General Abdul Rahman Azzam Pasha told Cairo demonstrators who clamored for arms: "You will get arms--an abundance of them. . . . We prefer death to Zionist subjugation. . . ." The Lebanese Parliament voted a million Syrian-Lebanese pounds ($460,000) as a "first installment" donation to the "Palestine Liberation Committee." Deputies pledged one month's pay. Arab youths from Palestine were crossing the border for a month's training with the Syrian army, which had drawn near the Palestine frontier.

On the Jewish side, part of the underground army Haganah came out into the open to protect Jews from Arab attacks. (This week, near Tel Aviv, Arabs in ambush killed the Haganah district commander, Joshua Globerman.) Jews set up twelve recruiting centers in Palestine. Increased immigration (present limit fixed by the British: 1,500 a month) would increase Jewish strength. The British government considered transferring 16,000 Jews to Palestine from Cyprus before Feb. 1, admitting 10,000 Jews a month to Palestine thereafter. U.S. officials in Germany, Austria and Italy began planning the movement of 6,250 Jewish D.P.s a month, beginning in February. The Jewish Agency for Palestine gave priority to young people, able to build or fight.

More Trouble Ahead. The Arabs were still far from ready for an organized, sustained war in Palestine. But the threat was serious enough to cause headaches at U.N., where the Palestine Commission was being formed. Secretary-General Trygve Lie appointed Dr. Ralph J. Bunche, U.S. Negro educator, who has been director of the U.N. Trusteeship Division, to be chief of the Palestine Commission Secretariat. Britain planned to hand over its mandate soon after the commission's arrival (probably some time in May). After that, say the British, they will take no responsibility for order in Palestine.

Since Washington had taken the lead in the fight for partition, the world looked to it for a solution of the developing conflict. The U.S. Government considered calling for an international force contributed by U.N. members. But that might open the door for Russian participation, which the U.S. wants to avoid. Rather than allow Russian troops a foothold in the Middle East, the U.S. might take on the job itself. Military authorities estimated that at least 50,000 troops would be required; sending such a force in 1948 might create a hotter U.S. political issue than the one Washington tried to avoid by accepting Zionist demands for partition.

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