Our Palestine Question by Geoffrey Levin

Author:Geoffrey Levin
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780300274998
Publisher: Yale University Press

Secretary of State John Foster Dulles on the left with Lessing Rosenwald, president of the anti-Zionist American Council for Judaism. Wisconsin State Historical Society.

Despite this dynamic, the Eisenhower administration was not entirely unfriendly to the State of Israel. Shortly after entering office, Eisenhower himself told Dulles that he felt “extremely hopeful that we can improve the political and economic position of Israel.” With regard to Israel’s economy, which struggled to absorb masses of immigrants in the early 1950s, Eisenhower certainly did work to strengthen Israel’s position. As historian David Tal has shown, Eisenhower’s administration ultimately supplied Israel with a more generous economic aid package than had the Truman administration and provided it primarily in the form of grants, rather than loans as Truman did. Financial generosity, however, did not mean that the administration would follow Israel’s lead on political matters. The Eisenhower administration would chart its own course on Middle East policy, which sometimes involved direct pressure on Israel, putting it at odds with many in Congress whose views often reflected those of their pro-Israel constituents and various American Zionist groups. As for the White House, in place of Zionists, it would be the non-Zionists of the AJC and anti-Zionists of the Council who more frequently had the administration’s ear.21

Eisenhower’s first term marked the pinnacle of Council influence in Washington, aided by the administration’s hopes of forging a partnership with Egypt, which it presumed required pressuring Israel to make concessions. In April 1953, Council president Lessing Rosenwald met with an “extremely attentive” President Eisenhower, who gave “the impression that what he heard was in general agreement with his views.” The meeting may have contributed to the sentiments behind Eisenhower’s October 1953 observation that “the political pressure from the Zionists in the Arab-Israeli controversy is a minority pressure. My Jewish friends tell me that except for the Bronx and Brooklyn the great majority of the nation’s Jewish population is anti-Zion.” Secretary of State Dulles, on his first tour of the Middle East, reportedly took with him Council material that Rosenwald had given Eisenhower. Upon his return, Dulles’s speech calling for a more evenhanded U.S. policy toward the region “contained passages that bore a striking resemblance” to Council proclamations.22

More frequent than direct Council contact with Eisenhower and Dulles was the group’s communication with Henry Byroade, then the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Near Eastern, South Asian, and African affairs. Berger and Byroade quickly developed a warm friendship, coming to refer to each other affectionately as “Hank” and “the mad rabbi.” Byroade had no qualms with making their personal relationship public. In late 1953, when confronted by Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) journalists reporting that a “secret luncheon meeting” had taken place involving Rosenwald, Berger, and the assistant secretary, Byroade told prying reporters that “I merely met with some old friends whom I have known for a number of years.” Rosenwald remained tight-lipped about the luncheon, reporting that there was “absolutely nothing for publication about the meeting today.”23

Yet as the reporters suspected, Byroade’s relationship with Council leaders went beyond mere personal ties.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.