Was President Harry S. Truman a proponent of Israel or not and why?

Question

http://www.wymaninstitute.org/letters/2004-02-06-mom.php

Letters They Wouldn't Publish

Answer 1

not

Answer 2

President Truman was the first head of state to officially recognize Israel as a country.

It seems a little funny to me how that letter can be taken out of context. Knowing what he ended up doing for Israel.
The full version of that letter is below.

Answer 3

The article basically says he was a pro-Israel antisemite.

Answer 4

According to some article,an early proponent was :
A key proponent for Israel's future restoration was Henry Finch (1558-1625) who wrote a seminal work on the subject in 1621, called The World's Resurrection or The Calling of the Jewes. A Present to Judah and the Children of Israel that Ioyned with Him, and to Ioseph (that valiant tribe of Ephraim) and all the House of Israel that Ioyned with Him.12 Finch, at the time of the publication of his book was one of the most highly respected scholars in England at the time. "The book had been published for a matter only of weeks when the roof caved in on the author's head," notes Culver. "In the persecution which ensued, Finch lost his reputation, his possessions, his health--all precipitated by his belief in Jewish national restoration."13 King James of England was offended by Finch's statement that all nations would become subservient to national Israel at the time of her restoration.14 Finch and his publisher were quickly arrested after his book was released by the High Commissioner (a creation of King James) and examined.15 Finch was stripped of his status and possessions and then died a few years later. "The doctrine of the restoration of the Jews continued to be expounded in England, evolving according to the insight of each exponent, and finally playing a role in Christian Zionistic activities in the latter part of the nineteenth and in the first of the twentieth centuries."
President Truman was a proponent of Israel :
President of the United States. Presidential Counsel Clark Clifford described Truman' s


own reading of ancient history and the Bible made him a supporter of the idea of a Jewish homeland in Palestine, even when others who were sympathetic to the plight of the Jews were talking of sending them to places like Brazil. He did not need to be convinced by Zionists. . . . All in all, he believed that the surviving Jews deserved some place that was historically their own. I remember him talking once about the problem of repatriating displaced persons. " Every one else who' s been dragged away from his country has someplace to get back to," he said. " But the Jews have no place to go." [166]


Truman' s Christian Zionism came into play during two of the greatest decisions that he would have to make during his Presidency: First, how should the U. S. vote on the partition of Israel, which would result in the creation of the new Jewish state, during the United Nations vote in late November of 1947? Second, should the U. S. diplomatically recognize the newly formed nation when David Ben-Gurion declared the birth of Israel on May 14, 1948?

On both issues, virtually all of Truman' s personal advisors, the State Department and the military establishment were opposed to him. Saddington notes:


Truman' s most trusted foreign policy advisers, almost to a man, were dead-set against the establishment of a Jewish state in Palestine. The president faced the formidable front of General Marshall, Under Secretary of State Robert Lovett, Secretary of the Navy James Forrestal, Policy Planning Staff' s George Kennan, State Department Counsel Charles Bohlen, and Marshall' s successor as secretary, Dean Acheson. Loy Henderson, director of NEA, who arrived at the State Department just three days after FDR' s death, also opposed the Zionist aims. William Yale, also at the State Department, said that the creation of a Jewish state in Palestine would be " a major blunder in statesmanship." When Secretary Forrestal reminded the president of the critical need for Saudi Arabian oil in the event of war, Truman said he would handle the situation in light of justice, not oil.[167]


Truman dealt with both issues by applying his " the buck stops here" approach with tough, responsible decisions. " Truman instructed the American delegate at the U. N., Herschel Johnson, to announce U. S.' s endorsement of the UNSCOP partition plan on 11 October 1947." [168] Then, seventeen minutes after David Ben-Gurion' s declaration of the new state of Israel, a cable was sent to Israel and a message went to the press from the White House announcing the following:


This government has been informed that a Jewish State has been proclaimed in Palestine, and recognition has been requested by the provisional government thereof.

The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new State of Israel.[169]


Clark Clifford said of President Truman' s decisions to favor Israel the following observation:


As a student of the Bible, he believed in the historic justification for a Jewish homeland, and it was a conviction with him that the Balfour Declaration of 1917 constituted a solemn promise that fulfilled the age-old hope and dream of the Jewish people.[170]


After his presidency, his longtime Jewish friend Eddie Jacobson introduced Truman to a group of professors by saying, " ' This is the man who helped create the state of Israel,' but Truman corrected him: ' What do you mean " helped to create" ? I am Cyrus. I am Cyrus.' " [171] Truman was comparing himself to Cyrus in the Old Testament who enabled the Jews to return to their land in the sixth century b.c. from their 70-year captivity. Perhaps his response indicates that Truman had indeed found the main reason as to why God' s providence placed him into the Presidency at the time in which he arrived. In fact, many who have sifted through the data believe that had Franklin Roosevelt remained President, he would not have made the same decisions as those made by the cussing Baptist from Missouri.[172] It appears to my biblically informed, evangelical mind that God raised-up Harry S. Truman and put him in the White House for the purpose of providing a key human agent through whom He used, as He did Cyrus centuries ago, to restore Israel to her land.

Answer 5

You misspelled his name. There is no dot (or period) after the "S".

Answer 6

i thought he was pro-zion, most ally countries were.