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February 13, 2012
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Mark Clayton: How did Anonymous hackers eavesdrop on FBI and Scotland Yard?
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Victoria Kim: Immigrant-smuggling ring used black drivers to avoid racial profiling
February 2, 2012
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Reza Kahlili : Ex-CIA spy in Iran's Revolutionary Guard: What Obama doesn't grasp about striking deals with Tehran
Tina Susman: For woodchuck rescuer, every day is Groundhog Day
February 1, 2012
Brian Bennett: US officials see increasing threat of domestic attack from Iran
Emily Brandon: How to Take Advantage of New 401(k) Fee Disclosures
January 31, 2012
January 30, 2012
Paul Richter and Ramin Mostaghim: Misreading Teheran's limits -- deadly and economically devastating as they may be -- is a risk administration, Europe seem willing to take
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Meg Handley: Banks Revamping Rewards Programs to Woo Customers
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Yochonon Donn: In liberal New York City, fervently-Orthodox Jews may soon be getting a district to call their own
Jeannine Stein: An inflated ego and thinking you're 'all that' doesn't just make others sick of you, it can make you ill
Katy Hopkins: New budget rules may affect how much money you get for college
January 26, 2012
Ed Koch: To the New York Times, calling for the murder of Jews by those capable of having their incitement taken seriously isn't news
Jeannine Stein: Mental illness struck one in five U.S. adults in 2010: Report
January 25, 2012
Richard Simon: House passes two bills endorsing the use of religious symbols at military memorials
Fred Weir: Putin: Multiethnic Russia cannot survive as a US-style 'melting pot'; must find its own way
Susan Johnston: 5 Sneaky Coupon Strategies Consumers Should Watch Out For
January 24, 2012
Carol Clark: The price of your soul: How your brain decides whether to 'sell out'
Caroline B. Glick: America lost most in 'Arab Spring'. Sadly, many voters still don't grasp the extent
Warren Richey: Drug criminal scores win in GPS ruling from conservative-leaning high court
Erika Bolstad: Black conservatives gather to talk about gaining strength
January 23, 2012
Melissa Dribben: Jewish voters to play a key role in Florida's Republican primary
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Ali Safi: U.S. envoy gives Taliban terms for peace talks
January 19, 2012
January 18, 2012
January 17, 2012
Frank J. Gaffney Jr.: No-kidding red lines: U.S. response to an Iranian nuke may be bluster, but Israel's won't be
David G. Savage: They sued their principals after slandering them online --- now the cases are headed to the Supreme Court
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January 13, 2012
Ben Lynfield: Israeli lawmakers move to annex Jewish Judea, one museum at a time
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January 12, 2012
Warren Richey: Landmark Supreme Court ruling a 'resounding win' for religious groups
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January 11, 2012
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Tom Hussain: Pakistan -- recipient of more than $21 billion in civilian and military aid -- speeds pursuit of Iranian pipeline, defying US
David G. Savage: High court signals it won't be loosening TV's 'indecency' rules
Stephen Ceasar: Oklahoma's Islamic law amendment can't go into effect, court rules
January 10, 2012
Reza Kahlili: From an ex-CIA spy: US must exploit new split in Iran's Revolutionary Guard
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January 9, 2012
Michael Doyle: Put through legal hell over dream home, couple fought back hard --- all the way to Supreme Court
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Jewish World Review
July 21, 2003
/ 21 Tamuz, 5763
Truman was saving his own skin
By
Sidney Zion
http://www.jewishworldreview.com |
Do we let Harry Truman off the hook because, despite his self-recorded
anti-Semitism, he bucked his State Department and recognized Israel?
That is the question in the aftermath of the discovery in the Truman
Library of the most vicious remarks ever made about Jews by an
American President.
The early returns indicate that Truman gets a grudging pass, since his
deed of recognizing Israel overcomes, if not obliterates, his private
words.
The underlying assumption is that by his decision to recognize the
Jewish state, Truman was responsible for saving and even creating
Israel. Against that, who cares what he thought? It's to his credit that
he pushed away his prejudices, no matter how primitive.
The trouble with this analysis is that it ignores the fact that Truman
imposed a harsh arms embargo on the Jews of Palestine, before, during
and after his so-called brave recognition of Israel.
Truman styled it as an embargo on all arms to the Middle East, as if it
were evenhanded, but he knew that the Brits were heavily arming the
Palestinian Arabs, who went to war with the Jews the day after the
United Nations voted to partition the Holy Land into Jewish and Arab
states.
By his arms embargo, Truman left the Jews to their fate, which the Brits
were sure would finish them off. With America laying off, the odds were
overwhelming that 2,000 years of yearning would end with the final
Jewish Kaddish.
The Palestinian Jews turned to the Soviets, who armed them through
their Czechoslovakian clients. But all the while, the Truman
administration not only deprived the Jews of guns, it attempted to
double-cross them in the UN.
Months before Israel declared its statehood, the U.S. pushed for a
trusteeship, abandoning the partition plan.
The end we know. Israel made it, against all odds - and against Truman.
What we forget is the means by which a discarded, wiped-out people
finally got a tiny piece of its ancient homeland.
And, irony of ironies, Truman ended up with the credit.
The story told is that Truman, pressed by his old haberdashery
partner, Eddie Jacobson, met with Chaim Weizmann, who later became
the first president of the Jewish state, and, bingo, there came Israel.
The story also has it that Clark Clifford, the President's young political
adviser, convinced Truman that recognizing Israel was the only
humane way to go.
Meanwhile, Gen. George Marshall was threatening to quit over the
issue. Marshall, then secretary of state, believed that if Truman
recognized Israel, it would simply be caving in to political pressure.
Now Truman's diary shows us that Marshall was right - it was all
political. And we know that the story about Truman making his
decision because he was convinced it was the only humane way to go
was off the mark, too.
What really clinched the deal was that Clifford told Truman that he'd
lose the 1948 election unless he recognized Israel. And that he'd better
do it immediately, because New York Gov. Thomas Dewey, the
Republican who would be his opponent, would demand it and take the
Jewish vote. Moreover, the Russians were going to recognize Israel,
too.
None of this would bother me today if the apologists for Truman would
recognize why he did it, this man who wrote in that diary that "neither
Hitler nor Stalin has anything on" Jews with power.
Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading."
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JWR contributor Sidney Zion is a columnist for the New York Daily News. Comment by clicking here.
© 2003, New York Daily News
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