Truman and Israel (review)

132 SHOFAR Truman and Israel, by Michael 1. Cohen. Berkeley, Los Angeles, and Oxford: University of California Press, 1990. 342 pp. $24.95. This book by Michael 1. Cohen, the author of several previous volumes on the emergence of Israel, is the most thorough of many studies of the "decisive diplomatic role" (p. xi) of President Harry S Truman. Cohen begins by examining Truman's outlook before he became president, going all the way back to childhood influences, and then analyzes the activities of both the "Zionist lobby" and the "anti-Zionist forces" before proceeding with an essentially chronological account of President Truman's policies relating to "refugee Zionism" and then to the establishment of the Jewish state (the U.N. Partition Resolution and the "retreat from partition" in favor of a trusteeship, the recognition of Israel, the First Arab-Israeli War and the Bernadotte Plan, the 1948 presidential elections, and post-election policies through January 1949). Cohen has made extensive use of various archives and other primary sources-some of which, as in the case of White House staff-member Max Lowenthal's private diaries, had not been available to other scholars. The author brings out a great deal that is new. Especially notable is the revelation of the role of Lowenthal as "the unsung hero"-"the 'back-room boy' [among the pro-Zionist White House staff, also including David Niles, that took control of Palestine policy during 1947] who supplied the argumentation to Clark Clifford, the 'court-house lawyer'" (p. 178). Any idea that Truman was committed in principle to the goal of a Jewish state is shattered. While supporting the idea of Palestine as a refuge for displaced Jews in Europe, Truman saw "Zionist aspirations" in terms of "a racial or theocratic state" in conflict with pluralistic, secular principles (p. 55). Cohen shows that even the trusteeship proposal (the adverse reaction to which allowed the White House advisers again to take the reins) had been approved by Truman, who was angry with the State Department only because of political damage caused by the timing of the announcement (pp. 196-197). . Not only did Truman slowly come around to supporting a Jewish state but, with intense pressure from those in the State Department and elsewhere in the government who saw this as a threat to American national interests, his support wavered to an extent that has generally not been understood. Cohen clearly documents the decisive nature of Truman's purely opportunistic concern over votes and "Jewish finance" (p. 69). Particularly memorable is the picture of funds being so low that "radio speeches were sometimes cut off in mid-course," and the whistle-stop campaign already underway was about to be cut short until "Eddie Jacobson flew to meet Truman with the money in his pocket" (p. 74). One is left wondering why Volume 10, No.2 Winter 1992 133 "Jewish" sources loomed so large and also about how this meshes with the author's claim that Truman's past connections with the corrupt Pendergast machine "reinforced his already strong determination to be his own man" (p. 19). Cohen also shows that Jacobson's influence was not limited to the one meeting that has been well known. Along with Abraham Granoff, another of the president's old Jewish friends from Kansas City, Jacobson had regular access to Truman. The author presents evidence that at the end of the period under consideration-ironically just as Washington's ultimatum to Israel over the invasion of Sinai superficially looked like a move away from backing the Jewish state-a "strategic reassessment" took place in the State Department (and slowly took hold in London as well) that gave Israel "the halo of Western realpolitik" (p. 268). I doubt whether the "strategic asset" idea actually prevailed that early, although Cohen will possibly find more evidence of such if he eventually continues his study into Truman's second term and beyond. I found the analysis of Truman's "complex and ambivalent" attitude toward Jews particularly interesting. Despite his personal friendships with Jews, he often mouthed bigoted phrases-like, in his earlier years, referring to New York as "kike town" (p. 9). Since the Palestine conflict...