PALESTINE: Anglo-Jewish War?

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Last week TIME'S London Bureau cabled: "It is an undisguised fact that Britain is on the verge of an Anglo-Jewish war in Palestine." Westminster's lobbies rang with the muttered warnings and fears of pro-Zionist Labor members. Everything was piling up to transform what had been an Arab-Jewish conflict into an Anglo-Jewish fight.

In Palestine impatient Zionists, angered by Bevin's reluctance to open the country to 100,000 more Jews, moved to new violence. Haganah, the underground Zionist army (estimated at 80,000, with additional support from almost all the 550,000 other Jews in Palestine), in past months had blown up coastal radar stations to help illegal immigrants enter the country. Last week Haganah turned to violence not directly supporting immigration: its leaders boasted of destroying eight bridges into Syria and Trans-Jordan.

The gesture was meant to warn the British that, if it came to real war, the Jews had a well organized army. The extremist Irgun Zvai Leumi went further: they kidnaped six British officers, held them as hostages for two Irgun gunmen who had been sentenced to death. Gangs raided central railway shops in Haifa; nine Jews were killed. The Haviva Reik, carrying 450 illegal immigrants (see cut), was nabbed by British patrol ships and brought into Haifa. She flew a banner proclaiming: "Keep the gate open; we are not the last."

The British expected more trouble, and the Jews promised it. Said one leading British Jew last week: "The British Government can stop this thing only by exterminating the Jews." No one supposed that the British were preparing any such move. Last week harassed Downing Street, under pressure from the Jews, the Arabs, the British Laborites, the U.S. (generous with advice, but little else, on the Palestine problem), Russia (ever watchful for a chance to expand into the Middle East), did not know how it would move.