(EDITORIAL) Delegating to Rabbis Stephen Wise and Abra Silver the formulation of American policy in respect of Palestine, Mr. Roosevelt has succeeded in outraging both constitutional propriety and Muslim sentiments. ... American attempts to aid and abet the Jews who, thanks to immigration quotas and illegal entry, have now been encouraged to envisage the prospect of converting themselves into a majority in Palestine against the Arabs who for fourteen centuries and more have enjoyed undisputed rights have invoked the resentment of the entire Muslim world.

British policy has been consistently devious but over the issue of Palestine it can no longer offer to remain silent. With President Roosevelt at the back of American Jewry, the discredited Balfour Memorandum with its vague offers of a Jewish National Home is sought to be resuscitated, when the acid test of statesmanship is in the honouring of the White Paper binding the British Government to acknowledgment of Arab rights. Not more alien than the American intervention in Palestine is General Smuts’ recent support to the Jewish claims. The calculated moves to stampede the British Government into a betrayal of the Arabs have inspired a new solidarity of the Muslim countries who are determined that Palestine shall not be a dead-end.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2019

Opinion

Editorial

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