State Department Telegram to Diplomats and Consulates Regarding the Recognition of Israel

views updated

State Department Telegram to Diplomats and Consulates Regarding the Recognition of Israel

Date: May 14, 1948

Source: The National Archives. "Teaching With Documents Lesson Plan: The U.S. Recognition of the State of Israel." <http://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/us-israel/> (accessed May 25, 2006).

About the Author: President Harry S. Truman (1884–1972) directed the U.S. Department of State to issue this telegram the same day in 1948 that Israel's Provisional Government proclaimed the new State of Israel.

INTRODUCTION

The term Zionism refers to the movement for the creation of a Jewish state. Following waves of antiSemitism throughout Europe in the latter decades of the nineteenth century, the move to create a Jewish homeland gained popularity among Jews. Russian political problems after the assassination of the Tsar were blamed on Jews. As such, Jews became the target of violence. In addition, the Dreyfus affair, during which a Jewish army captain was convicted of treason based on forged evidence, highlighted the institutionalized nature of anti-Semitism in France. Writers such as Leon Pinsker (1821–1891) and Theodor Herzl (1860–1904) began to assert that Jews would continue to be the target of discrimination wherever they remained a minority. In 1896, Herzl published Der Judenstaat (The State of the Jews), which suggests that the condition of the Diaspora, or Jews residing throughout the world, would continue to deteriorate. As a result, the first Zionist Congress met in August 1897 and the goal to gain a Jewish home was established. After Herzl's death, Chaim Weizmann (1874–1952) led the Zionist movement and met with British leaders in the hopes of gaining British support for a homeland. By 1907, Weizmann had visited Palestine and concluded that the region should be colonized by the Jews. As a result, a trickle of immigrants began to move into the region.

During this time, Western powers viewed Palestine as a region that lacked national settlement. Approximately 200,000 Arabs, a delineation based on language rather than national identity, resided in the region, but they lacked a formal governmental structure. As World War I began to spread, Britain negotiated policies with both Arabs and the Jews who resided in the Middle East. In 1917, the Balfour declaration identified the British sympathy for Zionist goals and the British intent to sponsor a national home for the Jews. British occupying troops in the Middle East allowed Britain to become the dominant power following the defeat of Germany and Turkey in World War I. At the San Remo Conference in 1922, Western powers divided the Middle East using self-interest to determine their mandates. While the Western powers carved up the region, Jews began to immigrate to Palestine in larger numbers. From 1919–1931, the Jewish population in Palestine increased from 60,000 to 175,000.

In 1933, Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) began his rise to power and also began to implement his policies for the eradication of European Jews. During this period, Arabs became increasingly resistant to the growing numbers of Jewish immigrants to Palestine. After a series of conflicts that resulted in the deaths of Britons, Jews, and Arabs, the White Paper of 1939 established a new policy for Britain. The white paper asserted that Britain sought an independent Palestinian state, governed by Jews and Arabs who shared authority. Perceiving a betrayal on the part of British policy makers, the Zionists began to pursue support from the United States where many of the Jews resided. As World War II came to an end, Zionists gained popular support for a Jewish state as the details of the Holocaust became apparent. On the political front, however, Britain and the U.S. recognized the importance of the Middle East in the ramp up to the Cold War. By 1948, United Nations Resolution 181 terminated the Mandate for Palestine, by which the British had administered the region. As a result, the Jewish inhabitants of the region declared their independence and the statehood of Israel. Arab nations rejected the state of Israel while western powers acknowledged the new country.

PRIMARY SOURCE

NO DISTRIBUTION.

US URGENT.

TO.

CERTAIN AMERICAN DIPLOMATIC AND
CONSULAR OFFICERS
NIACT.

For your secret info and for such precautions as you may consider it necessary to take this Govt may within next few hours recognize provisional Jewish govt as de facto authority of new Jewish state.

Send to following posts:

MISSIONS
Cairo
Jidda
Baghdad
Beirut
Damascus

CONSULATES
Alexandria
Port Said
Dhahran
Jerusalem
Haifa
Aden
Basra.

SIGNIFICANCE

After the British left the newly formed state, several Arab nations including Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia declared war on Israel. Invasions by Egyptian, Syrian, and Jordanian forces began the Israeli War of Independence. The armistice for this war, signed in 1949, partitioned more land to Israel than was originally agreed to by the United Nations resolution. By 1967, the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was in full swing. Many Arab countries received military and financial support from the Soviet Union, while the U.S., Britain, and France continued to support Israel. The Six-Day War occurred in June 1967 as a response to the actions of Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser who closed the straits of Tiran to Israeli shipping and expelled UN peacekeepers. In response, Israel launched attacks on the Egyptian air force and began an occupation of Sinai and Gaza, as well as the West Bank and Golan Heights. Peace was established through UN Resolution 242. However, many Arabs, including those within the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), rejected the terms of the resolution. As a result, on October 6, 1973, Egyptian and Syrian forces launched an attack on Israel on Yom Kippur, the Jewish holy day of atonement. Both the U.S. and the Soviet Union participated indirectly by supplying their respective allies with arms.

Conflict between Israel and its Arab neighbors continued to result in violence and unrest in the region. Then, in 1979, Egypt and Israel signed the Camp David Accords. These agreements, which included a peace treaty between Egypt, one of the most powerful Arab states, and Israel, demonstrated that negotiations with Israel were possible. This summit laid the framework for the 1993 Oslo Agreement between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. By 2000, the peace process set in motion by the Oslo agreement had stalled. Attempts by the U.S. to restart the peace process have met with resistance in the following years. In 2006, Hamas, an Islamic fundamentalist organization, won the Palestinian National Authority's general legislative elections. The future of negotiations is in doubt, since Hamas is viewed by Israel and the Western powers as a terrorist organization due to their violent activities against Israel.