Editorial Note
General Riley, on November 3, sent a report to Mr. Bunche giving his comments on problems facing the UN observers in supervising the truce in Palestine. He asserted that the truce supervision “has lost whatever authority and moral force it may have had at one time. Its decisions and directives … are flouted by the parties to the truce whenever it is in their interests to do so. It now operates almost solely to report violations of the truce, which grow more numerous and Open each day, and which reports have less and less significance.” Enforcement of the truce, he advised, “has ceased to exist. Observers find themselves absolutely powerless to stop violations of the truce, even when they are on the spot where the violations are about to occur, or are occurring.” The observers are “limited almost entirely to issuing threats and requests to Arab forces to refrain from various courses of action that would give the Jews a pretext for taking offensive action, as in the Negev and Galilee.”
General Riley summed up the attitude of the parties with the statement that “they ignore, obstruct, or circumvent the mission except when it can serve their own interests. This attitude is most pronounced in the Jews. … Willful and premeditated violations of the truce by the Jews are now routine. Emboldened by their recent successes in military operations and evading UN retaliatory action, they obviously intend to ignore the truce mission in carrying out their plans and policies.” General Riley observed that the Arab forces, as a general rule, “have endeavored to comply with the cease fire. Violations of [on?] their part have usually consisted of retaliatory actions, which they have had very good reasons for taking.” He also noted a recent increase in Iraqi and Transjordan operations in the central sector and an accompanying trend to take matters into their own hands.
In evaluating the capabilities of the parties, General Riley concluded that “The Jews toe now far superior to all other forces combined in their offensive military strength. … If the Jews so desire, they could undoubtedly clear all of Palestine of Arab forces in a relatively short time.”
[Page 1542]General Riley concluded his report with the opinion that “it is time to reexamine our present setup as regards the number of observers, both officers and enlisted men, with view to reduction in their numbers to meet future needs.” (Delga 660, November 9, noon, from Paris, 501.BB Palestine/11–948)