Biden's Comparison Of Obama With Truman On Israel May Be More Accurate Than He'd Like

No president since Harry Truman has done more for Israel’s security than Barack Obama.
Vice President Joe Biden, April 2012

If we take a closer look at Joe Biden's comparison of Obama to Truman based on the discovery of recent documents, there may indeed be a basis for comparison.

It is now being reported that the US State Department made threats in 1948 to prevent the establishment of Israel:

A U.S. State Department official in 1948 threatened to release anti-Semitic documents in response to the establishment of the State of Israel, according to diplomatic cables.

The Washington Free Beacon reported Thusday that according to recently unearthed diplomatic cables, Undersecretary of State Robert Lovett told Nahum Goldmann, the president and founder of the World Jewish Congress, that he was ready to disseminate a white paper that would “do great harm to the Jews.”

According to the cables, Lovett told Goldmann that the State Department would seek a truce with the Arab countries and if Israel prevented the truce by declaring independence on its own terms, the State Department would prevent any assistance from reaching the infant Jewish state.

The cables were found by Rafael Medoff, the director of The David Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, who in an interview with an interview with the Jerusalem Post indicated that The State Department threat against Israel was in support of Truman's actual presidential policy:

"Truman did not want a major international conflict that would draw the Soviet Union in, and then necessitate American intervention. He didn’t have a plan to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict. He just wanted to keep things calm.” In the end, even when the War of Independence did break out, the US never did have to send in troops. “For Truman, it was simply a problem of timing,” Medoff said. With the election just months away, he acceded to his political adviser’s urging to support the establishment of the Jewish state.

Ah yes, elections.
Truman is not the only Democrat who has burnished his Pro-Israel credentials during a presidential election year.

Medoff goes on to indicate there is something of a pattern from 1948 that we see being repeated today during the Obama administration. It is a pattern that comes full circle--including Vice President Biden himself as well as Obama:

“It’s possible to see 1948 in recent developments,” he suggested. “The intimidating of American Jewish Zionists for the possible loss of American lives is happening today. Like when Vice President Biden made a statement that the construction of apartments in certain neighborhoods of Jerusalem could lead to attacks on Americans. The tactic of using leaks to the media to try to pressure Israel not to take steps to defend itself against Iran does the same thing.”

“It’s the same implicit threat that the Jews will be blamed for the death of American soldiers,” Medoff said. “Is it a coincidence, or is it a pattern? Whatever it is, it’s as troubling now as it was then.”

The threats are indeed troubling.
As a reminder of the threats that have been issued by the US against Israel--by Obama himself as well as the State Department--the following video provides a reminder:



Technorati Tag: Israel and Obama and Biden and Election 2012 and Harry Truman.