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President Truman and the Birth of Israel

[Newsweek] Michael Beschloss - From Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989 (2007) Truman's ultimate decision about a Jewish state - one of the most significant foreign-policy decisions in U.S. history - emerged from a storm of cross-pressures and motives. He was besieged by Zionists, anti-Zionists, Democratic politicians eager to court the Jewish vote in an election year, and diplomats afraid to rile the Arabs. He felt compassion for the Holocaust survivors still in European camps and reverence for biblical history. But he feared as well that the new state might require defense by U.S. troops and dreaded that respected leaders like Gen. George Marshall would accuse him of warping American diplomacy to his own political needs. Truman also had to rise above his own lingering small-town parlor anti-Semitism. In the end, Truman recognized Israel for many different reasons. The Jews' display of military strength in Palestine had convinced him that U.S. troops would not be needed to defend them. He feared that letting the Russians recognize Israel first would give them a foothold in Palestine. Truman also realized helping to found a Jewish state was a historic act that might qualify him for some future edition of "Great Men and Famous Women." By recognizing Israel, Truman knew he would be forever damned by people who did not want the Jews to have their own state - or who did not want it in Palestine. But as Truman always told himself, the ultimate test of any presidential decision was "not whether it's popular at the time, but whether it's right....If it's right, make it, and let the popular part take care of itself."
2007-05-09 01:00:00
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