Jewish State ‘Cabinet’ Holds First Session, Associated Press, NY Herald Tribune, Apr. 19, 1948.

TEL AVIV, April 18 (AP).-The Jewish Council of Thirteen, potential Cabinet of the Hebrew state, held its first meeting today. They met in spite of United Nations truce proposals which might stymie legal formation of any actual sovereign Hebrew government.

Allocation of Cabinet portfolios and the possible creation of a five man War Cabinet were discussed.

A meeting was called for next week of the larger Council of Thirty-seven, potential provisional legislature of the state. All are parts of what is described here as the “internal Jewish authority.”

This wording is used to avoid the word “government” at least until the end of the British mandate. The Jewish Agency and the Zionist Council have declared that a Jewish state will be proclaimed when the mandate is ended.

There was no announcement after the meeting as to whether the United Nations truce proposal was discussed. Jewish Agency officials here declined comment on the truce beyond the views expressed by their representatives at Lake Success.

The public feeling here, where the fight is already moving toward a climax, is that a truce or any other proposal preventing establishment of a Hebrew state May 15 is unacceptable.