Eye witness to 1948 – The American contribution

After the Partition Plan was voted on in November 1947, Ben Gurion was under a lot of pressure not to declare a state, particularly from the US State Department. He was warned that the US wouldn’t recognize the state and would maintainits arms embargoe on Israel. He was told that 6 Arab countries would invade and destroy the new state within about 3 months.
Ben Gurion recognized its was now or never and believed that half a loaf was better than no loaf. So he opted to declare the state of Israel, as soon as the Mandate ended, in May ’48 .  Israel was immediately invaded by 6 Arab countries. The British were supplying the Arabs with arms to destroy israel and were preventing Israel from accumulating arms with which to defend themselves.

Ben Gurion sent Golda Meir to America to raise money for the war effort. She was wildly successful thereby providing the money needed to arm a non existing IDF. Many Americans had stories to tell about their role in raising the money and buying the arms and shipping them to Israel. In addition 3500 voluntered to join the IDF providing it with tremendous experience and know how.
You may recall how much Israel struggled to defend itself and finally agreed to a ceasefire in the fall of 1948.  It was during this ceasefire that Israel was able to arm its army.  After the ceasefire ended, Israel went on the offensive and put the Arab armies in retreat, so much so that they sued for peace. Unfortunately, Israel didn’t have the time to recover Jerusalem. Ben Gurion sunk the Altelena which was carrying sufficient arms to liberate Jerusalem and he knew it. These arms were financed by American Jews.
TOLODOT took it upon itself to record their testimoney or that of their children. What follows is a playlist of such testimonies.
I SAW THE WHOLE THING AT THE BEGIN CENTER LAST NIGHT AND FOUND IT VERY EMOTIONAL. YOU DON’T WANT TO MISS ANY OF IT.

December 13, 2019 | 9 Comments »

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  2. It's good to also bring that up Frank, although I have never been able to trace the reason. It would indicate that Truman said "yes" but Weitzman said "I don't believe you" which I can be certain (and so can you) never happened. Also that there had been another person(s) (unidentified) present. Most likely apocryphal. The State Dept., very Jew-Hating, was unequivocally against assent, and Truman,, a new and unexpected President AND Anti-Semite, was VERY luke warm and inclined to take their position.

    My recollection is that the result of that meeting, brought about by the urging of Truman's old Jewish business partner (who in his OWN words, hadn't seen Truman for years, and had difficulty getting to see him) was, in the immortal words of Sam Goldwyn(fish) :"a definite maybe", more to get rid of him than anything else.

    Weitzman was pessimistic from the meeting. It was afterwards, on thinking abut it, and afraid that the Russians were going to recognise first, which would have been a real casualty, an international slap in the face" to American Pride, that he decided to agree and instructed his reps to change their vote to YES. My recollected impressions only.

    ******I have actually looked into all the documented records of the original business partnership between Truman and Eddie Jacobson, including profit/loss accounts over years, and Truman's private mail seemed to often denigrate him as "my Jewish clerk". When the business failed, he blamed him bitterly. Privately he was Anti-Semitic, publicly he was non committal…etc. The public story is that Jacobson was a frequent visitor to the White House, but I don't believe that the records show this. (of course as we all know by now, White House records can be falsified either way, at will, by any President, or even underling) Much has been written to try to put a very good face on the relationship, and Jacobson's close long-time friendship, but Truman's public political decisions concerning Jews generally seem to refute this. Strong new scholarship has unearthed much Truman Jew-Hate and negativity…FDR also.*****

    And much more that there is no point in bringing up.

  7. My recollection, and from the many accounts I’ve read about that moment is …that it wss Chaim Weitzman who cabled to Ben Gurion to say to declare immediately, that “it’s now or never”. Ben Gurion had been vacillating and suggesting to hold off a little longer, because of uncertain international support, and other pressures against, but Weitzman gave him the spur.

    That is MY recollection, and I believe that I am correct. It was shortly after he had seen Truman, who had been avoiding him, and after the meeting which was tepid rather than warm, he cabled Ben Gurion.