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Seventy-five years ago Sunday, precisely on schedule at midnight, the first Jewish state in nearly 2,000 years was declared in Jerusalem.
Exactly 11 minutes later, the historic announcement was followed by another: The U.S. government had recognized that newborn state, called Israel.
The first announcement, which coincided with the end of the contentious British mandate over Palestine, was widely expected. The second was not, even for American officials. Some members of the U.S. delegation to the United Nations were so surprised by President Harry S. Truman’s decision that they broke into laughter:
Why would Truman, a pronounced antisemite, choose to become the American godfather of Israeli statehood?
Yet, of all the momentous decisions that fell to the 33rd U.S. president — dropping the atomic bomb, integrating the armed forces, going to war in Korea — Truman’s decision to recognize Israel stands out as perhaps the most misunderstood. The decision,…
This article was written by Gordon F. Sander and originally published on www.washingtonpost.com