Kennedy Plan for Refugees

Just after his talks in New York with Israeli Premier David Ben-Gurion last month (and just before his trip to Vienna), President Kennedy tried to still Arab fears that any Democratic Administration, because of the heavy vote it draws from U.S. Jews, is automatically pro-Israeli. He sent off warm and tactful letters to the chiefs of state of the United Arab Republic, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Saudi Arabia. To Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser, Kennedy recalled U.S. support at the time of Suez, to Lebanon's President Fuad Che-hab he mentioned the 1958 landing of U.S. Marines. To each, Kennedy promised that the U.S. was "willing to share in the labors and burdens" of resolving the Arab-Israel controversy, and in particular the problem of the Arab refugees from Palestine on "the principle of repatriation and compensation for property." Implication was that the U.S. would be ready to shoulder a major part of the costs.

Kennedy spelled out his ideas to Ben-Gurion in more detail. He proposed that part of the refugees be repatriated to Israel, part of them resettled in the countries where they are now living, and the rest be accepted as immigrants by other countries, including the U.S. Ben-Gurion replied that he would be willing to take back a few, perhaps 50,000 or so, but only as part of an overall settlement in which the Arab countries would recognize Israel as a nation. Presumably they would let Israeli ships through the Suez Canal and reach an agreement on the Jordan River. Last week, as the texts of the Kennedy letters leaked out, the replies began drifting in from the Arab states, and they were decidedly chilly. The Arab leaders, in more or less the same words, again denied the right of the "socalled State of Israel" to exist. Iraq decided not to reply at all, on the ground that "no answer will be the most effective answer." As for the 1,000,000 refugees, the Arab states would consider nothing less than full restoration of their lost lands in Israel, apparently condemning the refugees indefinitely to their squalid camps, where they subsist on a $30 million annual dole, 70% paid by the U.S. and 20% by Britain.

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