Summary
Mapai politician, afterwards Minister of Defence and Secretary-General of the Histadrut, quoted in Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace for the frankest government-camp statements in the 1950 debates: against appealing to the UN over Abdullah’s annexation, for the Tripartite Declaration’s guarantee of the existing borders, and, in 1954, for the unbreakable tie with the Western democracies (Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, PDF p.67-68).
Details
- Responding on 3/5/50 to proposals to take the annexation to the UN: “The UN can be appealed to on the basis of only one document. As far as the UN is concerned, the annexation affects one thing only: the General Assembly resolution of 1947 proposing the creation of an independent Arab state. … Would it not be foolish and suicidal for us to take that path? Where is the political logic in our inviting of our own free will a questionable third party and appointing it judge over all matters related to all the facts that have been created in this period, most of which are not in our disfavour?” (Knesset Records Vol.5, p.1294, quoted at PDF p.67-68). The authors gloss Lavon’s argument: the Council would discuss not only the 54% of the Arab state’s territory annexed to Transjordan but also the 44% annexed to Israel — the percentages are the authors’ words, not Lavon’s (PDF p.68).
- Defending the Tripartite Declaration (1950) on 31/5/50: “The very announcement of the three Powers and their commitment to ensure the existing borders is an important announcement … And therefore this commitment has great value” (Knesset Records Vol.5, p.1585, quoted at PDF p.78).
- On 10/5/54, openly: ”… Regardless of the misunderstandings, at times trivial and at times profound, between us and the great democratic states of the world, the tie between us and them will never be broken, there is no other tie with which we can replace this basic tie” (Knesset Records Vol.16, p.1610, quoted at PDF p.111). The book notes this was said openly in 1954 and not in 1949, when Israel still relied on Eastern-bloc support (PDF p.112).
Related pages
Peace, Peace, When There Is No Peace, Tripartite Declaration (1950), Non-alignment, Moshe Sharett