End of a Mission

Ever since last Christmas the U.N.'s harried Palestine mediation staff has wistfully eyed some cases of champagne which no one had the heart to open. Last week in Rhodes Mediator Ralph Bunche happily ordered the crates broken, and the champagne corks popped. Israel had just signed an armistice agreement with Transjordan, the only Arab country whose troops were still a real threat to peace in the Holy Land.

The settlement gave Israel important roads and railroads to link Haifa and Tel Aviv with Jerusalem. King Abdullah got Israel's recognition that he was the dominant power in Arab Palestine. More important still, both countries guaranteed each other's "security and freedom from fear of attack by the armed forces of the other." With only the Syrian armistice still to be negotiated, Ralph Bunche thought he would soon return to the U.S.

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