Netanyahu’s Latest Falsehood: The US Didn’t Support the Establishment of Israel

[eridani]

http://www.thenation.com/article/198849/netanyahus-latest-falsehood-us-didnt-support-establishment-israel

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has attempted to make light of his rift with the Obama administration in a new advertisement that rewrites American-Israeli history. The ad opens with “1948” emblazoned on a black background and shifts to a photograph of David Ben-Gurion declaring Israeli statehood on May 15, 1948. The text, appearing in Hebrew, reads:

1948—Ben Gurion faces a crucial decision: establishment of the State of Israel.
The American Secretary of State strongly opposed.
Ben Gurion, contrary to the position of the American State Department, declares the establishment of the state.
Would we be here today if Ben Gurion hadn’t done the right thing?
Only the Likud, Only Netanyahu.

Here are the facts: The American Secretary of State was George Marshall. In the fall of 1947, when the question of a Jewish and Arab state came before the United Nations, Marshall and President Harry Truman backed the creation of a partition in Palestine between a Jewish and Arab state. Truman and Marshall did attempt at one point to create boundaries that were more equitable—the final proposal had the Jews, who were less than a third of the population, being granted 56 percent of the land—but backed off, and when the crucial vote on partition came in November, the administration backed and energetically (to say the least) lobbied to gain the necessary two-thirds support for partition, on which the Israelis still base their claim of legitimacy. The resolution would not have passed without American support.

Between November and May of 1948, Marshall was preoccupied with the Berlin crisis and left discussions of Palestine to subordinates. In the spring of 1948, with war raging in Palestine, the State Department broached a plan, with Truman’s support, for creating a transition period in Palestine after Britain’s departure in May so that the Jews and Arabs might come to some agreement, but they abandoned that effort in the face of opposition from the Jewish leadership in Palestine and from the American Zionist lobby. From that time in early May, the question was not whether to recognize a new Jewish state, which was expected to be announced on May 15, but when to do so.

[LeftishBrit]

2. Netanyahu is posturing again. Marshall didn't support Israel's creation, but President Truman did.

I posted the following in 2010:


'There are fundamental differences between the predominant forces of the American (and to a lesser extent British) Right and the Israeli Right, which may irretrievably weaken such a coalition in the end. The main forces of the American Right are neocon-imperialist: they want to control as much of the world as possible, hate some foreigners, and encourage and use others as long as they are useful to them. Israel definitely comes into that category: it is a strategic ally, once against the Soviet Union, now against Iran, and a key player in America's military-industrial complex. A smaller American Right faction are xenophobic-isolationist: they hate foreigners; have no interest in 'foreign entanglements' far away or in building an Empire, but are hyperhawkish over any real or imagined threat near their own borders; and are obsessed with 'unAmerican' 'enemies within' and any possible foreign influences, often to the point of racism. Most American xenophobic-isolationists are anti-Israel (the most extreme are frankly antisemitic), or at least against American involvement with Israel.

Israeli right-wingers tend to be xenophobic-isolationists and the tendency seems to be increasing, especially since Avigdor Lieberman (the Hebrew translation of 'Pat Buchanan') was appointed as Foreign Secretary. They will go along with the Americans much of the time, due to financial dependence, and to America being one of their few explicit allies in the UN. But they are deeply suspicious of foreigners, and to some extent this includes Americans. If the mutual interests of Americans and Israelis begin to diverge more than they have been doing so far, then I suspect that the clash between the American RW imperialists and the Israeli RW xenophobes may interfere with maintaining an effective coalition.'

This seems to be getting to be more and more the case 5 years later.

The one good thing is that Netanyahu's irresponsible approach to foreign policy, plus some domestic financial scandals, may cost him the election: the opposition are beginning to gain votes.