these dangerous conditions prevailing in Palestine, and that there was no solution except abandoning partition or sending an international army to implement it by force.
On 19 March, the American delegate announced in his statement to the Security Council that his government had abandoned support for partition because it could not be implemented except by force. He proposed placing Palestine under international trusteeship, returning the question to the United Nations for renewed consideration, and inviting Arabs and Jews to conclude a political and military truce until a new decision could be made. The Canadian delegate likewise announced his government’s opposition to implementing partition by force and called for an understanding between Arabs and Jews and a peaceful solution to the Palestine problem. He proposed that the five great powers consult on a solution without being bound by the partition decision. Belgium, one of the states that had approved partition, informed the Lebanese government that it had withdrawn its support for the partition decision.
The American trusteeship-with-truce plan called for placing Palestine under trusteeship, with the United Nations appointing a governor general to administer the country under its supervision, assisted by an elected advisory council and a mixed police force. Jews would be allowed to immigrate at a rate of 5,000 per month. Military activity would cease, weapons and armed men would be barred from entering, and political activity would be prohibited. The population would cooperate with the mandatory power in maintaining public order, the holy places, and public facilities.
This new situation angered the Jews. They rebelled against it and launched a fierce campaign against America, declaring that they would continue establishing and protecting the Jewish state. In fact, they continued bringing in weapons, ammunition, officers, and volunteers from abroad. The Jewish Agency submitted a complaint to the Security Council accusing the Arab states of conspiring to frustrate partition and demanding its implementation and the application of the UN Charter to the Arab states.
There is no doubt that this new situation was a victory for the Arab jihad and revolutionary and political struggle. Yet some Arab states at that time did not take the firm position that would have brought them to their goal, the abolition of partition and the destruction of the Jewish state. They thought that the entry of several brigades of their soldiers into Palestine, without a carefully studied military plan and without a firm political agreement on Palestine’s political future, would be enough to achieve the goal and eliminate Zionist plans forever.
The Arab states did nothing of consequence to increase their military readiness and strengthen their fighting capacity to confront the coming events at the level required by the seriousness of the Palestine question and worldwide Jewish zeal in supporting Zionist ambitions (1).
The United Nations and the Security Council:
Meanwhile, consultations were taking place in United Nations and Security Council circles to entice the Arabs to accept a plan for “international trusteeship” or a “federal Palestinian state,” to avoid the expected military intervention by the Arab states in Palestine. The Arab Higher Committee of Palestine, the Jewish Agency, and the Arab states had received memoranda from the American government calling on them to send representatives to participate in consultations among the five great powers to reach a solution to the Palestine problem and stating that the Arabs should submit amendments to the partition decision and the area of the regions it covered.
The Lebanese Foreign Ministry received a telegram on 12 March 1948 from Camille Chamoun, Lebanon’s representative at the United Nations at the time. It said that informal and secret consultations had begun, that he had held a lengthy meeting with American experts to examine ways of reaching a solution other than partition, and that these talks, taking place on the margins of possible consultations between the permanent members and the Arab Higher Committee of Palestine, would continue during the following week. The proposals that could serve as a basis for future talks were: