By April 23, 2008 Read More →

Arab Officer Says Jews Are Led by Russians, Associated Press, NY Herald Tribune, Apr. 19, 1948.

Arab LegionCAIRO. April 18 (AP).-The Syrian military liaison officer with the Arab League charged today that fifty Russian commanders are leading Jews against the Arabs in northern Palestine. He asserted that other Russians are assigned to Jewish fronts elsewhere.

The officer, Major Salah Bizri, said the Russian commanders, ranging in rank up to colonel, were using the Haifa district as a base and had organized Jewish operations in the Mishmar Haemek area during the last month. He said the Russians had reached the Holy Land disguised as civilians in a shipload of visuals immigrants.

[Official Jewish sources at Jerusalem, commenting on the report, sand the “Arab propaganda machine has shifted into high gear.” They said the “Arabs obviously are trying to capitalize on the Russian the Western powers,” and added- “In fact, some of our own people felt Russia’s support was a kiss of death, but we certainly are not being led by Russians.”

[A similar charge that Russians were leading the Jews was made a week ago by the Arab commander attacking Mishmar Haemek. Reporters later entered that Jewish settlement and found the Haganah commander to be a Bulgarian Jew who went to Palestine in 1929.]

The Trans-Jordan Foreign Minister, Fawzi Mulki Pasha, said here today that the regular forces of his country “will intervene very soon” in Palestine. An Arab League source reported such an action by Trans-Jordan already has taken place on a small scale but for reasons of international diplomacy cannot be publicly confirmed.

Arab troops under Fawzi Kaukji, a Syrian, suffered a reverse in the Mishmar Haemek battle last week. Arab League quarters now say that Kaukji has regained the initiative, owing chiefly to Trans-Jordan reinforcements.

Abdel Wahed Soliman Subel Pasha, a retired Egyptian general and his staff officers reviewed preparations here today for a large-scale Arab offensive in southern Palestine. Subel Pasha said the attack would be opened in a few days and would be distinct from the current guerrilla clashes in Palestine. His volunteer troops include Egyptians. Libyans and other North Africans.

The Arab League has not countermanded Subel Pasha’s instructions to open a southern front despite the truce order issued yesterday by the United Nations Security Council. Thirty-six Jewish settlements would constitute the immediate objectives of the planned drive.

Abdul Rahman Azzam Pasha, the league’s secretary general, predicted there would be more truce talks at the U. N. He said- “Since the truce was first proposed we accepted it in principle, but we laid down conditions necessary to make it workable, and we do not know yet how these conditions have fared at the hands of the major powers.”

The Arab conditions call for abandonment of the plan to partition Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states and dis-bandment of Haganah, the Jewish militia.

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