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The United States in Search of a Policy: Franklin D. Roosevelt and Palestine

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2009

Samuel Halperin  and
Irvin Oder
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Extract

This study traces the development during World War II of official American attitudes toward Palestine. Utilizing recently released official papers of President Franklin D. Roosevelt at Hyde Park, New York, and documentation in the Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem, our goal is to describe early American efforts to accommodate policy to the complexities of Middle Eastern politics. While relevant documents are still unavailable, the diplomatic and domestic politics chronicled here may provide better perspective than has hitherto been possible.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Review of Politics , Volume 24 , Issue 3 , July 1962 , pp. 320 - 341
Copyright
Copyright © University of Notre Dame 1962

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References

* Financial assistance to study these archives was provided to Dr. Halperin by the University Research Committee, Wayne State University.

1 Central Zionist Archives, Jerusalem (hereafter CZA), June 20, 1939, S25/237.

2 Ibid.

3 Memorandum of Weizmann, February 8, 1940, CZA, Z4/15463.

4 Wise to Roosevelt in Wise, Stephen S., Challenging Years (New York, 1949), pp. 225–226Google Scholar and Roosevelt to Wise in Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park (hereafter FDRL), Personal Papers File (hereafter PPF) 8084, June 9, 1941.

5 FDRL, PPF 8084, June 9, 1942.

6 FDRL, Official File (hereafter OF), 700, Box 3, Palestine: 1940–1945, December 29, 1942.

7 Ibid., April 8, 1943.

8 Hull, Cordell, Memoirs of Cordell Hull (New York, 1948), pp. 1531–32Google Scholar.

9 Ibid., p. 1532.

10 Ibid.

11 Ibid., p. 1533.

12 Philby, H. St. John, Arabian Jubilee (London, 1952), p. 211Google Scholar.

13 Ibid., p. 213.

14 Ibid., p. 214.

15 Weizmann, Chaim, Trial and Error (New York, 1949), p. 427Google Scholar.

16 Nahum Goldmann to Moshe Shertok, Jewish Agency for Palestine, July 14, 1943, CZA, S25/237.

17 Weizmann, , op. cit., p. 435Google Scholar.

18 FDRL, PPF 8084, May 19, 1943.

19 Hull, , op. cit., p. 1533Google Scholar. In a White House meeting on August 11, 1942, David Ben-Gurion, Chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine, asked Judge Samuel I. Rosenman to suggest that President Roosevelt send a special envoy, preferably a military man, to the Middle East to study the defense of Palestine and the possibility of creating a Jewish Army. Apparently, Hoskins (Executive Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State, Adolph A. Berle, Jr.) was the envoy chosen, for on April 20, 1943, he submitted a report to the Joint Chiefs of Staff on a three and one-half month tour of the Middle East. His conclusion: “It should therefore be very clear that a Zionist State in Palestine can only be imposed upon the Arabs by military force.” Report and analysis in files of American Zionist Emergency Council, Zionist Archives and Library, New York City.

20 Philby, , op. cit., p. 219Google Scholar.

21 Hull, , op. cit., p. 1533Google Scholar.

22 New York Times, August 24, 1943.

23 Hull, , op. cit., pp. 1533–34Google Scholar.

24 Ibid.

25 FDRL, OF 700, October 20, 1943.

26 Silver to American Zionist Emergency Council (hereafter AZEG), November 19, 1943, CZA, Z5/391.

27 AZEC memorandum, February 23, 1944, CZA, Z4/1027 IV. For other examples of Zionist “lobbying,” see the reports in CZA of interviews with Judge Samuel I. Rosenman, October 6 and 12, November 3, December 9, 1943, Z4/14472, Z5/391, Z5/388; Representative Sol Bloom, Chairman, House Committee on Foreign Affairs, October 11, 1943, Z5/391; Justice Felix Frankfurter and Representative Emanuel Celler, October 12, 1943, Z5/391; Frankfurter, January 3, 1945, Z5/379; Governor Herbert Lehman at State Department, October 29, 1943, Z5/727; Abraham Fortas and Louis Bean, March 30, 1944, Z4/10207 IV; and correspondence of Weizmann to Secretary of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr., March 27, August 13, October 18 and 25, 1944, Z4/15272. See particularly, Silver's interview with Morgenthau, November 8, 1943, for reports of anti-Semitic elements in the State Department, Z5/730 and “The Morgenthau Diaries,” VI: “The Refugee Run-Around,” Collier's Vol. 120 (18), 11 1, 1947, 22–23, 62, 65Google Scholar.

28 Silver to AZEC, October 29, 1943, CZA, Z5/727.

29 Henry Montor to AZEC, October 29, 1943, CZA, Z5/388.

30 Text in ibid.

31 Stettinius to FDR, in ibid., March 4, 1944. For texts of resolutions, see Congressional Record, 78th Congress, 2nd Session, Vol. XC, part 1, 856, 963.

32 The Zionists found Murray “unsympathetic” at least as early as 1930. See correspondence in CZA, S25/237.

33 Silver to AZEC, October 29, 1943, CZA, Z5/727.

34 Hull, , op. cit., p. 1534Google Scholar.

35 Great Britain, Parliamentary Debates, Fifth Series, Commons, CCCXCIII, col. 1152.

36 Hull, , op. cit., pp. 1534–35Google Scholar.

37 Ibid., p. 1535, and FDRL, OF 700.

38 Hull, , op. cit., p. 1535Google Scholar.

39 Texts of letters in FDRL, OF 700.

40 New York Times, March 10, 1944.

41 Wise, , op. cit., pp. 216–32Google Scholar and FDRL, PPF 3292, for Wise's statement of September 24, 1936 supporting Roosevelt, and memorandum, Samuel I. Rosenman to FDR, September 14, 1940.

42 See PPF 3292, Wise to FDR, October 6, 1938, March 10, 1938, April 28, 1943. Cf. Burns, James MacGregor, Roosevelt: The Lion and the Fox (New York, 1956), pp. 285–86Google Scholar.

43 FDRL, OF 700. Cf. Krock, Arthur, “President on Palestine,” New York Times, 03 29, 1944Google Scholar.

44 FDRL, OF 700. Early consulted Judge Rosenman before forwarding the Arab inquiries to the President. Rosenman requested Early to tell the State Department that “just as the Arab rulers have political questions and considerations, so does the President, and he has to take into consideration the attitude of four million Jews, who want Palestine.” Goldmann to Jewish Agency, April 27, 1944, CZA, Z5/388.

45 Hull, , op. cit., pp. 1535–36Google Scholar.

46 Stettinius to FDR, June 14, 1944, FDRL, OF 700. Earlier, too, upon his return from London, Stettinius told Goldmann that Churchill and other British leaders were far more favorable to Zionism than he had known and, therefore, the Zionist program would be realized — but not until the war was won or nearly won. Again he cautioned against the use of too much pressure; Weizmann's “charm” was the correct aproach. Goldmann to Jewish Agency, May 19, 1944, CZA, Z5/394. See a similar report by Goldmann, August 9, 1944. loc. cit.

47 Hull, , op. cit., p. 1537Google Scholar.

48 Text of resolution in Congressional Record, Vol. XC, part 5, 78th Congress, 2nd Session, 7302, H. Res. 622. Three identical resolutions were introduced at the same time.

49 Hull to FDR, FDRL, OF 700, August 30, 1944.

50 Wise to FDR, September 14, 1944, ibid.

51 Stettinius to FDR, June 14, 1944, ibid.

52 Wagner to FDR, September 29, 1944, ibid.

53 Dewey made an equally forthright promise three days earlier. Both texts may be found in New Palestine, October 27, 1944. Wise's draft to Rosenman, actually weaker than the final release of the President, may be found in CZA, Z5/388, dated October 12, 1944.

54 Stettinius to FDR, November 17, 1944, FDRL, OF 700.

55 FDR to Wise and Silver, November 21, 1944, Ibid.

56 FDR to Stettinius, December 9, 1944, Ibid. The elaborate steps taken by the Zionists before renewing their drive for congressional resolutions are detailed in memoranda of Rabbis James G. Heller and Leon T. Feuer, February 23, 1944, and Harry L. Shapiro, December 12, 1944, in CZA, Z4/1027 IV and Z5/402, respectively. Adequate data are unavailable concerning the role of American petroleum interests in countering Zionist ambitions, but for partial treatment see memoranda in CZA of Eliahu D. Stone to Abba H. Silver, March 24, 1944 and Nahum Goldmann, March 30, 1944, Z4/10207 IV, and Benjamin Akzin during March, 1946, in Z5/1316.

57 Goldmann to Jewish Agency, December 27, 1944, CZA, Z5/394.

58 Goldmann to Jewish Agency, April 27, 1944, CZA, Z5/388.

59 Roosevelt, Elliott (ed), FDR: His Personal Letters 1928–1945, Vol. II (New York, 1950), 1559–60Google Scholar.

60 Wise to FDR, January 24, 1945, FDRL, OF 700.

61 Lowdermilk, Walter C., Palestine, Land of Promise (New York, 1944)Google Scholar. See also letter from Roosevelt to James M. Landis, Director of Economic Operations in the Middle East, January 11, 1945, requesting information on the Middle East; Roosevelt, Elliott, op. cit., pp. 1564–65Google Scholar.

62 Welles, Sumner, We Need Not Fail (Boston, 1948), pp. 29–30Google Scholar. See also Celler, Emanuel, You Never Leave Brooklyn (New York, 1953), pp. 117–18Google Scholar.

63 Welles, , op. cit., pp. 29–30Google Scholar.

64 Perkins, Frances, The Roosevelt I Knew (New York, 1946), pp. 87–89Google Scholar. See also Tully, Grace, FDR, My Boss (New York, 1949), pp. 352–53Google Scholar; Sherwood, Robert E., Roosevelt and Hopkins (New York, 1948), pp. 871–72Google Scholar; McIntire, Ross T., White House Physician (New York, 1946), pp. 230–31Google Scholar; Roosevelt, Eleanor, This I Remember (New York, 1949), pp. 341–42Google Scholar; and Eddy, William, FDR Meets Ibn Saud (New York, 1954)Google Scholar, passim, and sources cited in note 56 infra.

65 Stettinius, Edward R., Roosevelt and the Russians (Garden City, 1949), pp. 289–90Google Scholar. See also Roosevelt, Eleanor, op. cit., p. 342Google Scholar.

66 Cf. New York Times, March 2, 1945, and Rosenman, Samuel I., Working With Roosevelt (New York, 1952), pp. 527–28Google Scholar.

67 New York Times, March 17, 1945.

68 There are at least three complementary reports in CZA of Wise's talk with Roosevelt: two letters by Dr. Josef Cohn to Jewish Agency Executive, March 18 and 20, 1945, Z4/14978 and Z5/922 and Wise to Weizmann, March 21, 1945, Z4/14978.

69 New York Times, March 17, 1945.

70 Text in ibid., October 19, 1945.

71 Text in Stettinius, op. cit., p. 290, and FDRL, OF 700. Replies dated April 12, 1945.

72 Welles, , op. cit., p. 30Google Scholar.