Chapter 320: The Recommendation

In 'forty-seven, late November's vote, In New York: General Assembly, passed; The resolution, recommending, wrote A split of Palestine's mandate; and cast For it, thirty-three; against, thirteen; ten Abstained; one absent; the United States, The Soviet Union, both for; and then Britain, who held it, abstained; the plan's states: An Arab state, a Jewish state; and then Jerusalem, a city set apart, Under a world regime, of neither; when The mandate ended, August first; the start Of states, the first October; but the text Said recommends: no government it meant; The country's people cast no votes; and next, The Jewish Agency said yes, consent; The Arab Higher Committee said no; The states that voted no, by name; and, spring, Already fighting, ere the scroll; the blow; Britain not staying till the last date's ring; The fourteenth, 'forty-eight, the day in May, The mandate ended, midnight; and, at four, That afternoon, in Tel Aviv, as they Filled the museum, read a scroll; and more: David Ben-Gurion read: state declared, Jewish, called Israel, from mandate's end, By natural, historic right; and paired With the Assembly's vote; and so it penned Not the plan's borders as its own; it said: Equality of social rights and of Political, for all; and, at its head, No faith, race, sex distinguished; and, above, The holy places of all faiths, kept; true To the Charter; and its closing words' trust In the Rock of Israel; both heard through: As God or people; open, as it must. The Arab state, though planned, was not declared; The fifteenth, armies entered: Egypt, too, Transjordan, Syria, Lebanon, paired With Iraq; and Jerusalem, cut through, Not the set-apart city; fighting split The city; no world regime set; and they Left homes, were driven out; the count, as writ, Some seven hundred thousand. The same day, The United States saw the state, in fact, Recognized it: de facto; not the map. Three regimes drawn on one land; then, one act Declared; a war; a city split; the gap Between the plan and year. The scroll's own charge: Equality, and holy places kept For all the faiths; this book holds, and at large, Jerusalem the shared, where all have stepped, The holy city of all faiths; its word, The sentence, stays a sentence, yet unmet; Count the vote, November's twenty-ninth, heard; The scroll, May's fourteenth; two maps, not one, yet.