The Origins of the U.S.-Israel Relationship:Truman and the Jewish State
Apr 30, 2010
Brief Analysis
As Israel marks its sixty-second birthday in 2010, U.S.-Israeli relations currently face the sort of tension that has periodically bedeviled the two allies. Indeed, from the very founding of Israel, the concept of creating a Jewish state was widely popular among the American people but deeply controversial among the policymaking elite. As President Truman himself admitted, no issue was "more controversial or more complex than the problem of Israel."
The Washington Institute honored Allis and Ronald Radosh, winners of the 2009 Washington Institute Book Prize for A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel, at a special Policy Forum on April 30, 2010, where they discussed the origins of the U.S.-Israel relationship and the evolution of the Truman administration's policy toward the idea of a Jewish state.
Allis Radosh has taught at Sarah Lawrence College and the City University of New York, and served as a program officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities. Ronald Radosh, professor emeritus of history at the City University of New York and adjunct senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, is the author or coauthor of fourteen books, including The Rosenberg File. He has written for the New Republic, National Review, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and many other publications. A Safe Haven is the second book that the Radoshes have written together.
