Dr. Akan Malici, who teaches political science at Furman University. His syllabus for “Politics of the Middle East” includes Muslim apologetics like Dalia Mogahed’s “Who Speaks for Islam”, Karen Armstrong’s “Muhammad: A Prophet for Our Time” and also anti-Israel materials like Walt/Mearsheimer’s “The Israel Lobby” which was widely criticized as being essentially antisemitic.
Writing in Greenville Online, Malici says that the only reason that the US recognized Israel was because of the Jewish lobby:
Warnings were plentiful. Yet, the United States did get involved ever further and it started arguably for electoral reasons. Political Zionism had come to play a significant role in American politics as the big war had concluded. Convinced he had to cater to it, President Harry S. Truman went against his advisers stating: “I’m sorry gentlemen, but I have to answer to hundreds of thousands who are anxious for the success of Zionism. I don’t have hundreds of thousands of Arabs among my constituents.” Defense Secretary James Forrestal countered: “U.S. policy should be based on U.S. national interest and not on domestic political considerations.” Alas, it was to no avail.
This is not true.
Richard Holbrooke, who was an adviser to Truman, writes:
As for domestic politics, neither the President nor I believed that Palestine was the key to the Jewish vote. As I had written the President in 1947, in a lengthy memorandum proposing a strategy for the 1948 election campaign, the key to the Jewish vote in 1948 would not be the Palestine issue, but a continued commitment to liberal political and economic policies. Noting the sharp divisions over Zionism within the Jewish community, I concluded, “In the long run, there is likely to be greater gain if the Palestine problem is approached on the basis of reaching a decision founded upon intrinsic merit.”
Holbrooke also says that the opposition to Israel was not based on ethics or morality, but:
Beneath the surface lay unspoken but real anti-Semitism on the part of some (but not all) policymakers. The position of those opposing recognition was simple — oil, numbers and history. “There are thirty million Arabs on one side and about 600,000 Jews on the other,” Defense Secretary Forrestal told Clifford. “Why don’t you face up to the realities?”
And Truman himself says that he burned thousands of letters written to him to boost the Zionist cause, and he made his decision to recognize Israel based on his conversation with Chaim Weizmann, whom he resisted meeting:
Truman’s decision had nothing to do with the “Jewish lobby,” but Malici – who uses that idea as a key part of his teaching – is not willing to look at any evidence that contradicts his thesis that the Jews are controlling America to its detriment.
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