Jordan Waters
• The Security Council has called on Syria and Israel to bring to an end the fighting which has been going on in the demili- tarised zone on the borders of the two countries. As the Governments of both States had appealed to the United Nations, there can be no excuse for failure to comply with this request for a cease-fire. But what the Security Council says is one thing ; what its representatives on the spot say is another. The same day that produced the vote at Lake Success in favour of a cease- lire saw the rejection by the Israel Government of a proposal by the United Nations' Acting Chief of Staff of the Armistic Commission which would have made a cease-fire effective. The • first object of the Security Council should therefore be to restore the authority of the Armistice Commission ; but this is no easy matter. This commission can only function properly if both Israel and her neighbours are reasonably satisfied with the status quo. Where this is the case the United Nations officials can, and do. act as intermediaries and as friendly advisers between these neighbours who are still officially not on speaking terms. But the present armistice line has many imperfections, of which the demilitarised zone between Syria and Israel is perhaps the most obvious. Here, in the extreme north of the former Palestine, the headwaters of the Jordan present a prize which may one day fall to those who are prepared to make bold use of bluff and bluster. The recent military and political manoeuvrings of Syria and Jordan may have been set off by an accidental spark, but there can be no certainty that they will not be repeated as long as the water problems of the Jordan valley are left undecided. However reluctant it may be to tackle the legacy of the Palestine problem, the Security Council can now hardly hope to escape from the necessity for direct inter- vention in the matters which divide Israel from her neighbours and which, as recent events have proved, are beyond the power of the United Nations authorities on the spot to settle.
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