These Are the Times...

It has been a good week for cynics and sceptics. The cynics have long been sadly shaking their heads, denying the possibility of East-West co-operation, refusing to believe that communist expansion would halt on the far side of Czechoslovakia. Today those heads are wagging wisely up and down in a chorus of I-told-you-sos. Similarly, the skeptics have long been doubting the ability of the United Nations to become more than an international bull session that discusses, investigates, and concludes, but never acts. They have suspected that the United States' commercial interests would undermine its interests in justice and in the United Nations, and today these skeptics can point to Flushing Meadows and say that they have been proven right.

The facts in both of these cases cannot help but chew deeply into the optimism and idealism of those still hopeful for peace on earth and good will towards men. But of the two, the Palestine issue is much the more clearly defined, much the more tragic twist of events. The current Czechoslovakia situation, while unquestionably the product of a Communist putsch of the most brazen sort, is not yet fully enough evolved to warrant throwing one hand up in despair and reaching for a rifle with the other, as many are already doing. It is true that President Benes has capitulated to the extent that he has accepted the resignation of twelve of his non-Communist ministers; and it is true that reports coming out of Czechoslovakia announce the existence of many police state features within the country. But it is equally true that Jan Masaryk, an outspoken believer in East-West cooperation, is still foreign minister, and that several other persons, neither Communists nor figure-heads, have retained influential positions. The existence of these men is hardly a cause for more than the most cautious optimism. It nonetheless prevents the "iron curtain" from drawing completely closed over Czechoslovakia.

In the case of Palestine, there is no slim opening for hope. The "oil curtain" has swung completely shut. After years of discussion and investigation, after the final UN decision to partition Palestine, the United States has turned its other face and, as one, UN delegate politely put it, is "urging the UN to do nothing as regards Palestine, but to do it immediately." This move is an inestimable tragedy to those hundreds of thousands of Jews in European DP camps who have been existing on a hope--the hope that they soon will be allowed to go to Palestine, the one place in the world where it is possible for them to reconstruct their lives. It is also a tragedy for those who had hoped that the UN would become an active force for justice and peace. And it is a tragedy for Americans that it should have been the United States that scuttled the UN in its first opportunity to become such an active force.