Press Release Announcing U.S. Recognition of Israel

Questions for Further Study

• 1. Scholars often view Truman's recognition of Israel as outside or even contrary to his administration's grand strategy of containing Communism and, in a way, as an early example of the special relationship between the United States and Israel. Is this the case, or was Truman's recognition of Israel consistent with broader trends in American foreign policy and, in particular, the post–World War II doctrine of containing Communism?
• 2. The U.S. Constitution divides the responsibility of conducting foreign policy between the executive and legislative branches of government. Did Truman's recognition of Israel constitute an expansion of presidential powers, and to what extent did it serve or not serve as a precedent for the further strengthening of the executive branch?
• 3. American foreign policy is conducted with the best interests of the United States in mind. In general, how should American foreign policy be determined, and beyond military and economic factors, to what extent should political ideology (for example, the promotion of democracy) and domestic considerations (for example, a well-organized ethnic lobby as in pro-Irish or pro-Israeli activism) be considered in the grand scheme of things?
• 4. Since 1898, the United States has increasingly viewed itself as a global and not a regional or hemispheric power. Viewed in this light, was Truman's recognition of Israel essentially consistent with America's increased global role?
• 5. Given the recent history of the Holocaust and the political goals of the Jewish survivors of the Nazi death camps, what other courses of action might Truman have taken in 1947 and 1948 to aid them? To what extent, if any, did domestic anti-Semitism in the United States also shape Truman's decision to recognize Israel?
• 6. Did the U.S. State Department seriously misunderstand the military capacity of the Jews in Palestine in 1948 and when it raised the possibility of sending 100,000 American troops to Palestine for political purposes?