News Snippets From All Beats

In 1948 the British were going to pull out of what they called Palestine, planning to turn the area over to the United Nations. Both the U.S. State Department and the Defenses Department supported the British plan. Two months earlier, President Harry Truman secretly promised the Jewish Agency that he would come out in support of their plan of partitioning Palestine into two parts, one Arab and one Jewish, and that he would recognize the new Jewish state.

The surrounding Arab states threatened all out war on the Jews if a partition was made, and Truman was forced to face down anti-Semitism in high-ranking offices in the states that led to intrigue, and skirmishes in the oval office. Further complicating a U.S. recognition of the new Jewish state was the very real possibility of an immediate military entanglement. At one point it was put to Truman’s aide Clark Clifford, who favored the Jewish state, by Defense Secretary Forrestal: “There are thirty million Arabs on one side and about 600,000 Jews on the other. Why don’t you face up to the realities?”¹

²

In spite of all the opposition, Truman and Clifford held firm. As the hour of midnight was approaching for the May 14 British pullout, “Clifford told the Jewish Agency to request immediate recognition of the new state, which still lacked a name.”³ Truman was quick to announce recognition, and the U.S. became the first to recognize the new Jewish state: Israel. (Jer 30:1-3)

Notes:

^1,3. Richard Holbrooke, “Washington’s Battle Over Israel’s Birth,” Washingtonpost.com, May 7, 2008.

http://www.washingtonpost.

com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/06

/AR2008050602447.html?hpid=opinionsbox1

^2. Document: Washingtonpost.com.

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