880 FOREIGN RELATIONS, 1949, VOLUME VI

501. BB Palestine/ 3—2949

M emorandum by the Assistant Secretar -y of State tor U: ited N ations
A fairs (Feust) * to. the Secretary of State _

TOP SECRET _ oo [Wasmnaron,] March 29, 1949.

Subject : ‘Suggested Remarks for use in Conversation with the For-
eign. ‘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 péace 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 continu-
ing ‘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 agree-
ments 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 deoply inter ested i in an n 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 settle-