The Henderson Committee
I went to a lecture on President Truman by Raymond Cannon, a former lawyer from England in our AACI club, that was based on the book "A Safe Haven – Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel" by Allis and Ronald Radosh. Raymond had previously lectured on President Roosevelt and this was a continuation of the series. He particularly focused on the relationship of these two US Presidents to the Palestine issue, before, during and after WWII.
Both Roosevelt and Truman were in principle in favor of a Palestinian homeland for the Jews according to the Balfour Declaration, which the US had supported. However, when it came to it, neither was persuaded to support either large scale Jewish emigration from Europe into Palestine, nor the formal acceptance of a Jewish State in Palestine . This was largely because the Arabs had become more aggressive towards the end of, and after, the war, when both the US and Britain depended largely on Arab oil supplies.
Immediately after meeting the other two allies, Britain and Russia, in Yalta, Pres. Roosevelt met King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia on a ship in the Atlantic in 1945 and in a secret written protocol he agreed to oppose large scale Jewish immigration into Palestine in exchange for future oil supplies. However, Roosevelt died a week later and Truman was appointed President. He admitted that he was unprepared and uninformed for this powerful position, but he proved to be more independent than many expected. The State Department supported the British position after the war opposing Jewish immigration into Palestine. The British hoped to maintain control over Palestine and therefore wanted to continue the drastic restriction on Jewish immigration that had been imposed under the White Paper of 1939. However, now there were approximately two million so-called Displaced Persons (DPs) in Europe and the Jews were no longer quiescent. Furthermore, Jewish and general opinion in the US was in favor of allowing the Jews to emigrate to Palestine (but not to the US) following the exposure of the terrible conditions that the Jews had experienced during the Holocaust. But, Gen. Patton, in charge of the concentration camps refused to allow Jews to leave them, and kept them there under appalling conditions, although they were supplied meager food and medical assistance. Nevertheless, in Dachau, 9,000 Jews died in the three months after the end of the war in August 1945. Patton himself regarded the Jewish survivors as little more than dangerous animals.
Coming into this situation, Truman would not accept the State Department's slavish support of the British, nor of the Arabs. He tried to arrange a compromise, he suggested that Britain allow 100,000 DPs to emigrate to Palestine, as a token. But, the British, with their own agreement with the Arabs, rejected this out-of-hand. In a way this was a mistake, by being intransigent, the Attlee Government, with Ernest Bevin, a true anti-Semite, as Foreign Secretary, put themselves on a collision course with the US. In order to resolve the situation, Truman suggested a Committee of Enquiry, the third such committee that had looked into the subject. The British reluctantly agreed. For Chairman of this Committee Truman selected Loy Henderson, a professional diplomat, Head of the Near East Agency of the State Department, who was known to be an opponent of Jewish Statehood. However, this Committee's mandate was narrow, they were supposed to consider only the question of the emigration of the displaced Jews from Europe and not the question of the Jewish State. By thus dividing the problem, Truman hoped it would be easier to solve the refugee situation.
The Committee had British members who were against Jewish emigration to Palestine. But, after visiting the DP camps in Europe and gathering testimony also in Palestine, the Committee was persuaded that there was in fact no other alternative than to allow the DPs to go where 90% of them wanted to go, namely to Palestine. In fact, no other country would accept mass immigration of Jews, and so the Committee in 1947 recommend large scale emigration of Jews from the DP camps to Palestine. King Ibn Saud immediately complained that he had been given an assurance by Pres. Roosevelt that the US would oppose such emigration, but noone had actually informed Truman of this secret letter, and so he publicly denied it.
At this point Britain found that it was unable to control the situation in Palestine, where the Jews were now wreaking havoc on the British forces, so they turned the problem over to the UN, that voted for partition in 1948. Once the British were gone and the State was founded emigration to Israel became legal and approximately 1 million former DPs immigrated to the new State. Their descendents now form the backbone of the country, and they know that, all other considerations aside, Israel is the only country in the world where Jews could find a haven.
Both Roosevelt and Truman were in principle in favor of a Palestinian homeland for the Jews according to the Balfour Declaration, which the US had supported. However, when it came to it, neither was persuaded to support either large scale Jewish emigration from Europe into Palestine, nor the formal acceptance of a Jewish State in Palestine . This was largely because the Arabs had become more aggressive towards the end of, and after, the war, when both the US and Britain depended largely on Arab oil supplies.
Immediately after meeting the other two allies, Britain and Russia, in Yalta, Pres. Roosevelt met King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia on a ship in the Atlantic in 1945 and in a secret written protocol he agreed to oppose large scale Jewish immigration into Palestine in exchange for future oil supplies. However, Roosevelt died a week later and Truman was appointed President. He admitted that he was unprepared and uninformed for this powerful position, but he proved to be more independent than many expected. The State Department supported the British position after the war opposing Jewish immigration into Palestine. The British hoped to maintain control over Palestine and therefore wanted to continue the drastic restriction on Jewish immigration that had been imposed under the White Paper of 1939. However, now there were approximately two million so-called Displaced Persons (DPs) in Europe and the Jews were no longer quiescent. Furthermore, Jewish and general opinion in the US was in favor of allowing the Jews to emigrate to Palestine (but not to the US) following the exposure of the terrible conditions that the Jews had experienced during the Holocaust. But, Gen. Patton, in charge of the concentration camps refused to allow Jews to leave them, and kept them there under appalling conditions, although they were supplied meager food and medical assistance. Nevertheless, in Dachau, 9,000 Jews died in the three months after the end of the war in August 1945. Patton himself regarded the Jewish survivors as little more than dangerous animals.
Coming into this situation, Truman would not accept the State Department's slavish support of the British, nor of the Arabs. He tried to arrange a compromise, he suggested that Britain allow 100,000 DPs to emigrate to Palestine, as a token. But, the British, with their own agreement with the Arabs, rejected this out-of-hand. In a way this was a mistake, by being intransigent, the Attlee Government, with Ernest Bevin, a true anti-Semite, as Foreign Secretary, put themselves on a collision course with the US. In order to resolve the situation, Truman suggested a Committee of Enquiry, the third such committee that had looked into the subject. The British reluctantly agreed. For Chairman of this Committee Truman selected Loy Henderson, a professional diplomat, Head of the Near East Agency of the State Department, who was known to be an opponent of Jewish Statehood. However, this Committee's mandate was narrow, they were supposed to consider only the question of the emigration of the displaced Jews from Europe and not the question of the Jewish State. By thus dividing the problem, Truman hoped it would be easier to solve the refugee situation.
The Committee had British members who were against Jewish emigration to Palestine. But, after visiting the DP camps in Europe and gathering testimony also in Palestine, the Committee was persuaded that there was in fact no other alternative than to allow the DPs to go where 90% of them wanted to go, namely to Palestine. In fact, no other country would accept mass immigration of Jews, and so the Committee in 1947 recommend large scale emigration of Jews from the DP camps to Palestine. King Ibn Saud immediately complained that he had been given an assurance by Pres. Roosevelt that the US would oppose such emigration, but noone had actually informed Truman of this secret letter, and so he publicly denied it.
At this point Britain found that it was unable to control the situation in Palestine, where the Jews were now wreaking havoc on the British forces, so they turned the problem over to the UN, that voted for partition in 1948. Once the British were gone and the State was founded emigration to Israel became legal and approximately 1 million former DPs immigrated to the new State. Their descendents now form the backbone of the country, and they know that, all other considerations aside, Israel is the only country in the world where Jews could find a haven.
posted by Jack Cohen at 6:53 PM
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