On May 14, 1948, the head of the World Zionist Congress, David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973), read out the founding declaration of his state Israel, in front of 250 people at the Tel Aviv Museum. For the Jews of the Diaspora, this was the formalization of their return to the Promised Land after a thousand years of exile. For the Arabs, who made up the majority of the inhabitants of Palestine, it was the “Day of Destruction” (“Nakba”), their own Exodus from the lands of their ancestors.

Exactly 11 minutes later, the historic statement was followed by another: the US government recognized the state of Israel.

Some members of the American delegation to the United Nations were so surprised by President Harry S. Truman’s decision that they burst out laughing: Why did Truman, a notorious anti-Semite, decide to become the American “godfather” of the Israeli state?

However, of all the fateful actions of the 33rd President of the United States – the atomic bomb, the Korean War – Truman’s decision to recognize Israel, stands out as perhaps the most misunderstood.

The Jewish question occupied Truman’s personal correspondence with his wife, as well as conversations with friends, especially when he discussed the undue pressure he felt Jewish leaders were putting on him as the end of the British Mandate drew near. (The British Mandate for Palestine was a geopolitical entity created after World War I. It was created in 1920 and ended in 1948 with the creation of Israel).

On July 21, 1947, the President of the United States had a long conversation with Henry Morgenthau, the Jewish Treasury Secretary, who asked him to intervene in the fate of the 4,500 Jewish refugees on the Exodus who were not allowed to land by the then British authorities in Palestine. Angry, Truman writes: “He had no reason to come to me” (Morgento). “These Jews have no sense of proportion, they cannot judge and take into account the international situation. Henry supposedly brought a thousand Jews to New York temporarily, and they stayed. And Truman continues in sharper language:

“I find Jews very selfish and individualistic. They don’t care how many Estonians, Latvians, Finns, Poles, Yugoslavs or Greeks were killed or wounded in the war, but the Jews should be given special treatment. When they become something, when they acquire physical, economic or political power, then neither Hitler nor Stalin reaches them either in cruelty or in terrible treatment of those who are below them, they treat them like dogs. Put an unfortunate Jew in some high position, and he will not be Russian, or Jew, or Negro, whether it be administration, trade union, Mormons, Baptists, he will immediately go awry. I have met very, very few people who remember their past when they “named” it themselves.

“In private conversations,” writes David McCullough in Truman, his Pulitzer Prize-winning biography, “he was a sometimes blunt man who could use [μια αντισημιτική προσβολή] or, in a letter to his wife, dismiss Miami as a place where there are only hotels, gas stations, Jews and taxis.

But, on the other hand, McCullogue emphasizes: “Supporting a Jewish homeland is a great political decision,” Truman told his associates against the backdrop of potentially critical elections in such large states as Pennsylvania or Illinois, and especially in New York. where there were 2.5 million Jews.” A Gallup poll showed that Trumanta was likely to lose to New York Gov. Thomas Dewey, the Republican nominee or anyone else, including General Douglas MacArthur.

In addition to political calculations, there was huge popular support in the United States for the possibility of a Jewish state. “Sometimes we forget that not only American Jews wanted to create a state for the Jewish people, but also most of America,” his biographer reports. “Politics, humanitarian concerns and foreign policy were intimately and inextricably intertwined,” said McCullough, who died last year. “However, for Truman, humanitarian considerations were undoubtedly paramount.”

When, at a meeting on the issue with foreign ministers, Truman argued that Israel should be recognized, Secretary of State George Marshall said that if he took such a step, he would vote against it in November. Hence the dismay at Truman’s final decision to recognize the new Jewish state two days later, and the shock with which it was received in some diplomatic circles, including the State Department itself. “The American delegation to the UN was stunned,” McCullough said.

Source: Washington Post.