501.BB Palestine/11–1548
Memorandum by Mr. Robert M. McClintock to the Acting Secretary of State
In light of this afternoon’s press reports of Shertok’s statement before Committee I of the General Assembly,1 Mr. Satterthwaite and I agree that it might be useful to repeat to the President Ambassador Douglas’ Niact 4851, November 12 attached. Both the press reports and this telegram relate to your description of the President’s feeling [Page 1585] that if he was to keep his contract the Israeli would have to keep theirs.2
- Mr.
Shertok, in a statement before the Committee on November 15,
announced that “The Mediator’s proposal concerning the Negeb was in
itself a sufficient reason why the Government of Israel could not
consider the [Bernadotte] report even a basis for discussion.” He
stated also that Israel would not give up any part of the Negeb,
that it claimed permanent inclusion in Israel of modern Jewish
Jerusalem and of the territory linking Jerusalem with the coast and
that all of the Galilee should be part of Israel. The text of Mr.
Shertok’s statement is printed in GA,
3rd sess., Pt. I, First Committee, Summary
Records, 1948, p. 640.
Ahmad Shukairy, Vice President of the delegation of the Arab Higher Committee at the United Nations, the following day, also rejected Count Bernadotte’s proposals as a basis for settling the Palestine problem (ibid., p. 647).
↩ - Marginal notation by Mr. Lovett: “Discussed substance with Clifford 5:45 Nov. 15th. No need to send.”↩