U.N.'s Palestine Mediator Count Folke Bernadotte was grave but pleased. In Cairo he announced to assembled newsmen that both Jews and Arabs had accepted his plan for a four-week truce in Palestine. At one point Bernadotte humbly said: "If we hadn't got help from God Almighty . . ." He looked up and saw some cynical smiles among his listeners. Bernadotte screwed his monocle more firmly into his right eye, continued: "Without His help, we wouldn't be sitting here."
Unreal Morning. That night in Jerusalem was the noisiest since Partition Day. Arab Legion artillery and mortar shells crashed into the Jewish quarters of the new town, kicked up clouds of white smoke and dust. Red tracers streaked across the domed roofs of the Old City. At dawn the Jews sent one last burst into the Arab positions. A shell exploded on the balcony of an Arab hospital, killing an attendant. As he was carried out of the ward, head hanging limply, a nurse whimpered: "He is dead. Did you see him die? He would have lived if the truce had started half an hour sooner."
At 8 o'clock, the truce deadline, a siren wailed through the Jewish quarters. The drumfire noises of war faded to scattered shots, then died out completely. An unreal quiet gripped Jerusalem. It was the same throughout most of Palestine.
Not all the firing stopped. Both Jews and Arabs quickly charged truce violations as one side or the other tried to stake out claims in the no-man's-lands between front lines. Each side would be entitled to stand fast on what it held for the month of peace—if it lasted that long. The most important pre-truce drive was an unsuccessful Israeli effort to reopen the road from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Anticipating failure, the Jews had hacked a primitive trail through the hills south of the main road. There mule trains, jeeps, and slogging men kept a trickle of supplies flowing into Jerusalem. A Jewish commander called it "our Burma Road."
Uneasy Month. One of Bernadotte's first problems would be to decide whether this thin capillary justified Jewish claims that they should now be allowed to supply Jerusalem unhindered by the Arabs. Another pressing problem: how many Jews of military age should be allowed to enter Palestine? There would be many other problems for Bernadotte. To assist in policing the truce terms, the U.S. sent 21 officers to work with him, ordered planes and ships to patrol the coastline and Arab frontiers.
At Lake Success Russia's Andrei Gromyko angrily insisted that Russia, too, be allowed to send truce officers. That was the last thing U.N. wanted. But how could
Russia be denied a share in the truce enforcement? The answer accepted by Bernadotte: restrict inspection officers and patrol craft to the three powers (France, Belgium and the U.S.) represented on the U.N. Truce Commission.