force, privately urged Israel to stop planting the trees. So did London and Washington. Everyone was leaning on Israel to bring the digging to a halt. 33
On August 28, 1957, as pressure built on Israel, its top leaders gathered to discuss their predicament. Golda Meir, then Israelâs foreign minister, painted the whole debate as an absurd overreaction by jittery Jordanians.
âIn Jordan during the first days there was great panic, when near the border, very near the border, we went in with heavy equipment, tractors and bulldozers,â Meir told Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion and other Israeli leaders. âPossibly, they were really panicked and turned to all their friends: âFor Godâs sake, Israel is preparing to attack!ââ 34
Israel wasnât preparing to attack Jordan. But the tree planting had triggered a war of its own. In New York, Meir said, Hammarskjold kept warning Israel to cool things down before they got out of control.
âWhen someone approached Hammarskjold he said: âYou donât really want a discussion in the Security Council. There is a feeling that America also does not want this discussion any too much,ââ Meir told the group. Just that morning, a UN official gave Israel another warning: Stop the tree-planting work or we will bring this before the UN Security Council. Meir urged Ben-Gurion not to bow to the pressure. 35
âThere is no reason to make a commotion,â Meir said during the meeting. âThere is no logical reason that we be forbidden to prepare the area and plant trees.â 36
âThey do not want our rights to be established,â Ben-Gurion told her. 37
âI want to suggest that we continue the work,â Meir replied. They had to stand up to the pressure. âWe will go to the Security Council. We will go there. Common sense does not tolerate that we have to stop the work.â 38
Meir warned that Israel would lose the upper hand if it agreed to stop digging up the hillsides.
âWe know that if we stop this one time, it is harder to start again later,â she said. âI think that the best thing we can do is to finish quickly, at the very least, the work with heavy equipment, indeed, bulldozers are not machine guns.â 39
The Israeli leaders emerged from the meeting ready to fight. The United Nations, America, England and other world powers kept privately prodding Israel to stop the work before they were forced to bring it before the Security Council. No one wanted to see the world superpowers fighting over trees in the Middle East.
âThe Americans are afraid that Syria and Russia will be given the opportunity to appear as though protecting Arab interests,â Meir said in another meeting on September 1. Meir urged the Americans to get Jordanâs King Hussein to back off. She saw no reason to back down. 40
âI do not care if Hussein says this is a victory because we took our heavy equipment out of the area,â Meir said. âBut to stop crucial workâthat we cannot do. Hussein has to supply sensations to public opinion, we also have public opinion to whom we will not be able to explain why we must stop work that doesnât cause damage to anyone and that there is no objection to our doing this work.â 41
Neither side would bend. Five days later, Israel was hauled before the UN Security Council to defend its decision.
The 11-member Security Council included Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., the American diplomat who would go on to become Richard Nixonâs vice presidential running mate when he lost to John F. Kennedy in 1960. Ambassadors from the Soviet Union, England, the Philippines and Iraq all gathered in the Security Council chambers to hear Jordanâs ambassador to the United Nations lay out the ominous implications for peace in the Middle East. This wasnât about trees, he told them. This was about the ground they were planted in. This land wasnât
On August 28, 1957, as pressure built on Israel, its top leaders gathered to discuss their predicament. Golda Meir, then Israelâs foreign minister, painted the whole debate as an absurd overreaction by jittery Jordanians.
âIn Jordan during the first days there was great panic, when near the border, very near the border, we went in with heavy equipment, tractors and bulldozers,â Meir told Israeli prime minister David Ben-Gurion and other Israeli leaders. âPossibly, they were really panicked and turned to all their friends: âFor Godâs sake, Israel is preparing to attack!ââ 34
Israel wasnât preparing to attack Jordan. But the tree planting had triggered a war of its own. In New York, Meir said, Hammarskjold kept warning Israel to cool things down before they got out of control.
âWhen someone approached Hammarskjold he said: âYou donât really want a discussion in the Security Council. There is a feeling that America also does not want this discussion any too much,ââ Meir told the group. Just that morning, a UN official gave Israel another warning: Stop the tree-planting work or we will bring this before the UN Security Council. Meir urged Ben-Gurion not to bow to the pressure. 35
âThere is no reason to make a commotion,â Meir said during the meeting. âThere is no logical reason that we be forbidden to prepare the area and plant trees.â 36
âThey do not want our rights to be established,â Ben-Gurion told her. 37
âI want to suggest that we continue the work,â Meir replied. They had to stand up to the pressure. âWe will go to the Security Council. We will go there. Common sense does not tolerate that we have to stop the work.â 38
Meir warned that Israel would lose the upper hand if it agreed to stop digging up the hillsides.
âWe know that if we stop this one time, it is harder to start again later,â she said. âI think that the best thing we can do is to finish quickly, at the very least, the work with heavy equipment, indeed, bulldozers are not machine guns.â 39
The Israeli leaders emerged from the meeting ready to fight. The United Nations, America, England and other world powers kept privately prodding Israel to stop the work before they were forced to bring it before the Security Council. No one wanted to see the world superpowers fighting over trees in the Middle East.
âThe Americans are afraid that Syria and Russia will be given the opportunity to appear as though protecting Arab interests,â Meir said in another meeting on September 1. Meir urged the Americans to get Jordanâs King Hussein to back off. She saw no reason to back down. 40
âI do not care if Hussein says this is a victory because we took our heavy equipment out of the area,â Meir said. âBut to stop crucial workâthat we cannot do. Hussein has to supply sensations to public opinion, we also have public opinion to whom we will not be able to explain why we must stop work that doesnât cause damage to anyone and that there is no objection to our doing this work.â 41
Neither side would bend. Five days later, Israel was hauled before the UN Security Council to defend its decision.
The 11-member Security Council included Henry Cabot Lodge Jr., the American diplomat who would go on to become Richard Nixonâs vice presidential running mate when he lost to John F. Kennedy in 1960. Ambassadors from the Soviet Union, England, the Philippines and Iraq all gathered in the Security Council chambers to hear Jordanâs ambassador to the United Nations lay out the ominous implications for peace in the Middle East. This wasnât about trees, he told them. This was about the ground they were planted in. This land wasnât
Similar Books
