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Message: <br /><br /> If you are having trouble reading this email, you may view this article online at: http://www.jweekly.com/41512/full/41512/historians-recount-how-u.s.-came-to-recognize-israel/ <br /><br /> <b>Historians recount how U.S. came to recognize Israel</b> <br /> Thursday, February 25, 2010 | by howard selznick <br /><br /><p>“A Safe Haven” is a detailed account of a four-year slice of history recounting America’s postwar role in Israel’s formation, reviewing the events that led to President Harry S. Truman’s controversial decision to recognize the new Jewish state.</p> <p>In the context of the emerging Cold War with the Soviet Union, petroleum development in the Middle East and the upcoming 1948 election, however, Truman at times comes across as just one player on a busy chessboard.</p> <p><img alt="Asafehaven" class="left" height="319" src="/images/uploads/y_photos_2010/zq02_26_10/Asafehaven.jpg" title="Asafehaven" width="216" />Ronald and Allis Radosh, husband-and-wife historians with academic credentials, portray Truman as frustrated with British policy and American Jewish demands. He certainly was sympathetic to the plight of Displaced Persons, but he had many other issues on his mind. The rebuilding of Europe and confrontations with the Soviet Union over the Berlin Airlift kept the new president’s plate full.</p> <p>U.S. policy on the postwar Mideast was a sparring match between White House and State Department Arabists, some of whom saw future oil production in Arab nations as a strategic asset.</p> <p>Others were trying to influence Truman’s outlook: Jews who favored creation of a state, and the British who were trying to get out of the Mandate without embarrassing themselves.</p> <p>One person with major influence on his actions as president was Truman’s Jewish friend and former business partner, Eddie Jacobson. At the same time, the president — a history buff who believed that Bible stories he read as a child were about real people — often expressed disdain for the many Jewish organizations that badgered him about the issue.</p> <p>All this was not entirely Truman’s doing. He inherited Franklin D. Roosevelt’s ambiguous Mideast policies. Under FDR, U.S. policy was never clearly articulated and the administration never spoke with one voice. Roosevelt tried to please Jews and Arabs at the same time, telling each party what it wanted to hear. Although there was sympathy for those who wanted to immigrate, there was never consensus on the fate of the Jews in pre-state Israel. But FDR did not want to offend Arabs by advocating a new Jewish state.</p> <p>“A Safe Haven” has subject matter that’s been covered by other authors, and in fewer pages. Robert Silverberg’s “If I Forget Thee O Jerusalem” covers much of the same ground but focuses on American Jews and their organizations. Michael Oren’s “Power, Faith, and Fantasy” explores the same events in the context of historical U.S. policy toward the Middle East. Truman biographers, such as David McCullough and Margaret Truman, deal with this period among other world events, including the White House–State Department conflict.</p> <p>Each of these authors spends about 25 to 30 pages on Truman’s role during this period. The Radoshes use 370 pages of narrative, 40 pages of endnotes and a nine-page bibliography to tell the same story.</p> <p>To the authors’ credit, the book is written as a popular history, clear and free of jargon. The writing, however, comes across as more journalistic narrative than historical analysis. For example, the authors state that it will be “up to historians” to clarify the confusion over Truman’s role in implementing trusteeship instead of partition as U.S. policy. Readers may wonder why the authors, both historians, didn’t try to demystify that issue themselves.</p> <p>In the end, the White House prevailed over the State Department in Mideast policy. Truman’s directive to recognize the new State of Israel took the State Department by surprise. Truman’s moral values prevailed; he was convinced that recognition was the right thing to do. And, as the saying goes, the rest is history.</p> <p><br /><strong>“A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel”</strong> by Ronald Radosh and Allis Radosh (448 pages, HarperCollins, $27.99)</p> <p> </p>

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