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Chronology
1939 | 1945 | 1946 | 1947 |
1948 | 1949
1939
May 17: British White Paper on Palestine
May 25: Senator Harry S. Truman inserts in the
Congressional
Record strong criticism of the British White Paper on Palestine,
saying
it is a dishonorable repudiation by Britain of her obligations.
1945
August 24: Loy Henderson, director of
the State Department's Near East Agency, writes to Secretary of
State
James Byrnes that the United States would lose its moral prestige
in the
Middle East if it supported Jewish aspirations in Palestine.
August 24: The report of the Intergovernment
Committee
on Refugees, called the Harrison Report, is presented to President
Truman.
The report is very critical of the treatment by Allied forces of
refugees,
particularly Jewish refugees, in Germany.
August 31: President Truman writes British Prime
Minister
Clement Attlee, citing the Harrison Report and urging Attlee to
allow
a reasonable number of Europe's Jews to emigrate to Palestine.
October 22: Senators Robert Wagner of New York and
Robert
Taft of Ohio introduce a resolution expressing support for a
Jewish state
in Palestine.
November 13: The British government announces the
formation
of an Anglo-American
Committee of Inquiry to investigate Britain's handling of the
Palestine
situation. The committee begins work on January 4, 1946.
November 29: At a press conference, President
Truman expresses
opposition to the Taft-Wagner resolution. He says he wants to
await and
consider the report of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry.
1946
April 20: The Anglo-American Committee
of Inquiry submits its report, which recommends that Britain
immediately
authorize the admission of 100,000 Jews into Palestine.
May 8, 1946: President Truman writes to Prime Minister
Attlee,
citing the report of the Anglo-American Committee of Inquiry, and
expressing
the hope that Britain would begin lifting the barriers to Jewish
immigration
to Palestine.
June 21: A
Joint Chiefs of Staff memorandum to the State-War-Navy
Coordinating
Committee warns that if the United States uses armed force to
support
the implementation of the recommendations of the report of the
Anglo-American
Committee of Inquiry, the Soviet Union might be able to increase
its power
and influence in the Middle East, and United States access to
Middle East
oil could be jeopardized.
September 24: Counsel to the President Clark
Clifford writes
to the President to warn that the Soviet Union wishes to achieve
complete
economic, military and political domination in the Middle East.
Toward
this end, Clifford argues, they will encourage the emigration of
Jews
from Europe into Palestine and at the same time denounce British
and American
policies toward Palestine and inflame the Arabs against these
policies.
October 4: On the eve of Yom Kippur, President
Truman issues
a statement indicating United States support for the creation of a
"viable
Jewish state."
October 23, 1946: Loy Henderson, director of the State
Department's
Near East Agency, warns that the immigration of Jewish Communists
into
Palestine will increase Soviet influence there.
October 28
: President Truman writes to King Saud of
Saudi
Arabia, informing the king that he believes "that a national
home
for the Jewish people should be established in Palestine."
1947
1947: From 1947-1948 the White House receives 48,600
telegrams,
790,575 cards, and 81,200 other pieces of mail on the subject of
Palestine.
February 7: The British government announces that
it will
terminate its mandate for Palestine.
February 14: The British government announces that
it will
refer the problem of the future of Palestine to the United
Nations.
April 2: The British Government submits to the
General
Assembly of the United Nations an account of its administration of
Palestine
under the League of Nations mandate, and asks the General Assembly
to
make recommendations regarding the future government of Palestine.
May 13: The United Nations General Assembly
appoints an
eleven nation Special Committee on Palestine to study the
Palestine problem
and report by September 1947.
August 31: The United Nations Special Committee on
Palestine
issues its report, which recommends unanimously (all 11 member
states
voting in favor) that Great Britain terminate their mandate for
Palestine
and grant it independence at the earliest possible date; and which
also
recommends by majority vote (7 of the member nations voting in
favor)
that Palestine be partitioned into Jewish and Arab states.
September 17: Secretary of State George Marshall,
in an
address to the United Nations, indicates that the United States is
reluctant
to endorse the partition of Palestine.
September 22: Loy Henderson, director the State
Department's
Near East Agency, addresses a memorandum to Secretary of State
George
Marshall in which he argues against United States' advocacy of the
United
Nations proposal to partition Palestine.
October 10: The Joint Chiefs of Staff argue in a
memorandum
entitled "The Problem of Palestine" that the partition
of Palestine
into Jewish and Arab states would enable the Soviet Union to
replace the
United States and Great Britain in the region and would endanger
United
States access to Middle East oil.
October 11: Herschel Johnson, United States deputy
representative
on the United Nations Security Council, announces United States
support
for the partition plan of the United Nations Special Committee on
Palestine.
October 17, 1947: President Truman writes to Senator
Claude Pepper:
"I received about 35,000 pieces of mail and propaganda from the
Jews in
this country while this matter [the issue of the partition of
Palestine,
which was being considered by the United Nations Special Committee
on
Palestine from May 13, 1947 to August 31, 1947] was pending. I put
it
all in a pile and struck a match to it -- I never looked at a
single one
of the letters because I felt the United Nations Committee [United
Nations
Special Committee on Palestine] was acting in a judicial capacity
and
should not be interfered with."
Ca. November: A subcommittee of the United Nations
Special
Committee on Palestine establishes a timetable for British
withdrawal
from Palestine.
November 19: Chaim Weizmann meets with President
Truman
and argues that the Negev region has great importance to the
future Jewish
state.
November 24: Secretary of State George Marshall
writes
to Under Secretary of State Robert Lovett to inform him that
British Foreign
Secretary Ernest Bevin had told him that British intelligence
indicated
that Jewish groups moving illegally from the Balkan states to
Palestine
included many Communists.
November 29: The United Nations General Assembly
approves
the partition plan for Palestine put
forward
by the United Nations Special Committee on Palestine. The
1947 UN Partition divided the area into three entities: a Jewish
state,
an Arab state, and an international zone around Jerusalem.
December 2: President Truman writes to former
Secretary
of the Treasury Henry Morgenthau, Jr., encouraging him to tell his
Jewish
friends that it is time for restraint and caution. "The vote
in the
U.N.," Truman wrote, "is only the beginning and the Jews
must
now display tolerance and consideration for the other people in
Palestine
with whom they will necessarily have to be neighbors."
December 5: Secretary of State George Marshall
announces
that the State Department is imposing an embargo on all shipments
of arms
to the Middle East.
December 12: President Truman writes to Chaim
Weizmann,
president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine and the World Zionist
Organization,
that it is essential that restraint and tolerance be exercised by
all
parties if a peaceful settlement is to be reached in the Middle
East.
1948
February 4: Chaim Wiezmann, president
of the Jewish Agency for Palestine and the World Zionist
Organization,
arrives in New York.
February 12: Secretary of Defense James Forrestal
says
at a meeting of the National Security Council that any serious
attempt
to implement partition in Palestine would set in motion events
that would
result in at least a partial mobilization of United States armed
forces.
February 19: Secretary of State George Marshall
says at
a press conference, when asked if the United States would continue
to
support partition, that the "whole Palestine thing," was under
"constant
consideration."
February 21: Eddie
Jacobson, a longtime and close personal friend of President
Truman,
sends a telegram to Truman, asking him to meet with Chaim
Weizmann, the
president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine and the World Zionist
Organization.
February 22: President Truman instructs Secretary
of State
George Marshall that while he approves in principle a draft
prepared by
the State Department of a position paper which mentions as a
possible
contingency a United Nations trusteeship for Palestine, he does
not want
anything presented to the United Nations Security Council that
could be
interpreted as a change from the position in favor of partition
that the
United States announced in the General Assembly on November 29,
1947.
He further instructs Marshall to send him for review the final
draft of
the remarks that Warren Austin, the United States representative
to the
United Nations, is to give before the Security Council on March
19, 1948.
February 27: President
Truman writes to his friend Eddie Jacobson, refusing to meet
with
Chaim Weizmann, the president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine
and the
World Zionist Organization.
March 8: Counsel to the President Clark Clifford
writes
to President Truman, in a memorandum entitled "United States
Policy
with Regard to Palestine," that Truman's actions in support
of partition
are "in complete conformity with the settled policy of the
United
States."
March 9: Secretary of State George Marshall
instructs Warren
Austin, United States representative to the United Nations, that
if a
United Nations special assembly on Palestine were convened, the
United
States would support a United Nations trusteeship for Palestine.
March 12: The United Nations Special Committee on
Palestine
reports that "present indications point to the inescapable
conclusion
that when the [British] mandate is terminated, Palestine is likely
to
suffer severely from administrative chaos and widespread strife
and bloodshed."
March 13: President Truman's friend Eddie Jacobson
walks
into the White House without an appointment and pleads with Truman
to
meet with Chaim Weizmann, the president of the Jewish Agency for
Palestine
and the World Zionist Organization. Truman responds: "You win, you
baldheaded
son-of-a-bitch. I will see him."
March 18: President Truman meets with Chaim
Weizmann, the
president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine and the World Zionist
Organization.
Truman says he wishes to see justice done in Palestine without
bloodshed,
and that if the Jewish state were declared and the United Nations
remained
stalled in its attempt to establish a temporary trusteeship over
Palestine,
the United States would recognize the new state immediately.
March 18: The United Nations Special Commission on
Palestine
reports to the United Nations Security Council that it has failed
to arrange
any compromise between Jews and Arabs, and it recommends that the
United
Nations undertake a temporary trusteeship for Palestine in order
to restore
peace.
March 19: United States representative to the
United Nations
Warren Austin announces to the United Nations Security Council
that the
United States position is that the partition of Palestine is no
longer
a viable option.
March 20: Secretary of State George Marshall
announces
that the United States will seek to work within the United Nations
to
bring a peaceful settlement to Palestine, and that the proposal
for a
temporary United Nations trusteeship for Palestine is the only
idea presently
being considered that will allow the United Nations to address the
difficult
situation in Palestine.
March 21: President Truman writes to his sister
Mary Jane
Truman that the "striped pants conspirators" in the
State Department
had "completely balled up the Palestine situation." But,
he
writes, "it may work out anyway in spite of them."
March 22: President Truman writes to his brother
Vivian
Truman regarding Palestine: "I think the proper thing to do,
and
the thing I have been doing, is to do what I think is right and
let them
all go to hell."
March 25: President Truman says at a press
conference that a United Nations trusteeship for Palestine
would be
only a temporary measure, intended to establish the peaceful
conditions
that would be the essential foundation for a final political
settlement.
He says that trusteeship is not a substitute for partition.
April 11, 1948: President Truman's friend Eddie Jacobson
enters
the White House unnoticed by the East Gate and meets with Truman.
Jacobson
recorded of this meeting: "He reaffirmed, very strongly, the
promises
he had made to Dr. Weizmann and to me; and he gave me permission
to tell
Dr. Weizmann so, which I did. It was at this meeting that I also
discussed
with the President the vital matter of recognizing the new state,
and
to this he agreed with a whole heart."
May 12: President Truman meets in the Oval Office
with
Secretary of State George Marshall, Under Secretary of State
Robert Lovett,
Counsel to the President Clark Clifford and several others to
discuss
the Palestine situation. Clifford argues in favor of recognizing
the new
Jewish state in accordance with the United Nations resolution of
November
29, 1947. Marshall opposes Clifford's arguments, and contends they
are
based on domestic political considerations. He says that if Truman
follows
Clifford's advice and recognizes the Jewish state, then he
(Marshall)
would vote against Truman in the election. Truman does not clearly
state
his views in the meeting.
May 12, 13, and 14: Counsel to the President Clark
Clifford
and Under Secretary of State Robert Lovett discuss the different
views
held in the White House and the State Department regarding whether
the
United States should recognize the Jewish state. Lovett reports to
Clifford
on May 14 that Marshall will neither support nor oppose Truman's
plan
to recognize the Jewish state, that he will stay out of the entire
matter.
May 13: Chaim
Weizmann, president of the Jewish Agency for Palestine and the
World
Zionist Organization, writes to President Truman: "I deeply
hope
that the United States, which under your leadership has done so
much to
find a just solution [to the Palestine situation], will promptly
recognize
the Provisional Government of the new Jewish state. The world, I
think,
would regard it as especially appropriate that the greatest living
democracy
should be the first to welcome the newest into the family of
nations."
May 14, 1948: late morning eastern standard time (late
afternoon
in Palestine): David Ben-Gurion, Israel's first prime
minister, reads
a "Declaration of Independence," which proclaims
the existence of a Jewish state called Israel beginning on May
15,
1948, at 12:00 midnight Palestine time (6:00 p.m., May 14,
1948,eastern
standard time).
May 14, 6 p.m. eastern standard time (12:00 midnight in
Palestine):
The British mandate for Palestine expires, and the state of Israel
comes
into being.
May 14, 6:11 p.m. eastern standard time: The United
States
recognizes
Israel on a de facto basis. The White House issues the
following statement:
"This Government has been informed that a Jewish state has
been proclaimed
in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the
provisional government
thereof. The United States recognizes the provisional government
as the
de facto authority of the State of Israel." To
see a color copy of this document click here.
May 14, shortly after 6:11 p.m. eastern standard
time:
United States representative to the United Nations Warren Austin
leaves
his office at the United Nations and goes home. Secretary of State
Marshall
sends a State Department official to the United Nations to prevent
the
entire United States delegation from resigning.
May 15: On May 15, 1948, the Arab states issued
their response
statement and Egypt,
Syria, Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq attack Israel.
1949
January 25: A permanent government takes
office in Israel following popular elections.
January 31: The United States recognizes
Israel on a de jure basis.
February 24 to July 20: Israel signs armistice
agreements with Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria.
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