A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and the Founding of Israel (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

" A Safe Haven, is an outstanding achievement. This is certain to become an essential work for students, journalists, and statesmen---indeed, anyone interested in understanding Israel's origins." (Michael Oren, author of Power, Faith and Fantasy: America in the Middle East, 1776 to the Present, and Six Days of War: June 1967 and the Making of the Modern Middle East. )

"In their deeply engaging study of Truman and the foundation of Israel, the Radoshes capture the dramatic intersection of momentous millennial aspirations and the thrilling intricacies of political intrigue with remarkable narrative skill. " (Ron Rosenbaum, author of Explaining Hitler and The Shakespeare Wars )

"Even knowing how the story ends, A SAFE HAVEN, had me sitting on the edge of my seat watching Harry Truman weigh the arguments of his friends and advisors in the months, then weeks, then days leading up to his recognition of Israel." (Cokie Roberts, New York Times bestselling author of The Ladies of Liberty )

"This is an excellent examination of a presidential decision that has had immense historical consequences." (Booklist )

"[A] revelatory account of Truman's vital contributions to Israel's founding. . . . Told by the Radoshes with an elegance informed by thorough research." (Wall Street Journal )

Product Description

On May 14, 1948, under the stewardship of President Harry S. Truman, the United States became the first nation to recognize the State of Israel—just moments after sovereignty had been declared in Jerusalem. But it was hardly a foregone conclusion that America would welcome the creation of this new country. While acknowledging this as one of his proudest moments, Truman also admitted that no issue was "more controversial or more complex than the problem of Israel." As the president told his closest advisers, these attempts to resolve the issue of a Jewish homeland had left him in a condition of "political battle fatigue."

Based on never-before-used archival material, A Safe Haven is the most complete account to date of the events that led to this historic occasion. Allis and Ronald Radosh explore the national and global pressures bearing on Truman and the people—including the worldwide Jewish community, key White House advisers, the State Department, the British, the Arabs, and the representatives of the new United Nations—whose influence, on both sides, led to his decision.

Impeccably researched, brilliantly told, A Safe Haven is a suspenseful, moment-by-moment re-creation of this crossroads in U.S.-Israeli relations and Middle Eastern politics.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 448 pages
• Publisher: Harper; 1 edition (May 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060594632
• ISBN-13: 978-0060594633
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,591 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #4 in	Books > Nonfiction > Politics > International > Diplomacy
  #9 in	Books > History > Middle East > Israel
  #14 in	Books > History > United States > 20th Century > 1945 - Present

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

25 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Timely, important and enduring, May 25, 2009

By	Jeffrey Herf - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Ronald and Allis Radosh have written a very important work of contemporary history. It examines President Truman's remarkable decision to support the foundation of the state of Israel, a decision he took even in the face of opposition from leading officials in the State and Defense Departments. On the basis of extensive and creative research, they present a powerful narrative about the international and domestic pressures impinging on Truman from 1945 to 1948 and about the evolution of his own thinking. This is a book about a key chapter in the history of American foreign relations and American politics. Yet in ways that many readers will find surprising and moving, it is also a story about the power of friendship and about Truman's courage and integrity. Both historians and general readers will find much in this book that is new, interesting and important. A Safe Haven is both timely and enduring. It deserves a very wide readership.

Jeffrey Herf, author of The Jewish Enemy: Nazi Propaganda During World War II and the Holocuast (Harvard University Press, 2006), and Nazi Propaganda for the Arab World, forthcoming with Yale University Press in Fall 2009.

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Outstanding Reminder, June 1, 2009

By	Jonathan A. Stein (West Hempstead, New York) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am giving this book five stars, notwithstanding a factual error that should have been caught by the editor. On page 3 there is a reference to the Jewish Diaspora since "they had been defeated by the Romans in 70 B.C." Problematically, the actual year is 140 years later -- 70 C.E. (a/k/a A.D.). Having said this, the book is a fine work of scholarship and did enlighten me both with respect to the complexity of the issue, as faced both by FDR and Truman. FDR did vacillate, and clearly was more focused on the effort to win World War II, naively thinking that somehow the issue of Jewish slaughter and refugees would solve itself. He clearly had hopes of convincing Saudi King Ibn Saud of the wisdom of a Jewish Commonwealth in Palestine when he met him just after the Yalta conference. However, by then he was too ill to focus his true attention, and he clearly regretted that he did not challenge Saud on his fallacious historical claims.

Truman, a true hero in this drama, was beyond frustrated by the lack of progress by the British and the perceived lack of appreciation by certain Zionist leaders, particularly, Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver.

There are several references in the book to the great playwright Ben Hecht, who as many may know wrote works as diverse at "The Front Page" and "Perfidy." In his autobiography, "A Child of the Century", Hecht opined that "in the warmest Christian heart, there is a cold spot for the Jew." While I do not believe the statement is universally true, it nonetheless represents a mindset that still prevails. Further, while the authors do not quote this statement, they demonstrate it in some of the more vitriolic comments by President Truman.

What ultimately comes through is that President Truman, as much as he was a politician wished to do what was just, and rose to the occasion, extending de facto recognition to the new State of Israel, when almost everyone in his cabinet was against doing so. He risked wholesale resignations both by the U.S. delegation to the U.N. and in the State Department itself. His courage was in taking the leap of faith necessary and damning the consequences if he proved wrong.

The book is an excellent, absorbing and engrossing telling of a fascinating series of events in world history. This is all the more important now, when the World at large seems to have forgotten its own complicity in the slaughter of 6,000,000 Jews.

Moreover, when one reads the way the Arabs reacted to the possibility of even one more Jew emegrating to Palestine, one cannot help but conclude that the Arab Muslim mindset has not evolved at all in over sixty years. When the UNSCOP committee went to Palestine to interview both Jews and Arabs, the Arabs refused to meet with them and only the Marionite Christians in Lebanon expressed support for the idea of a Jewish State in Palestine, with which they could find common ground.

I must confess, that as an Orthodox Jew, I was exceedingly impressed by the leadership manifested both by Reform Rabbis Abba Hillel Silver and Stephen Wise. This was at a time when Reform Judaism took an egalitarian and anti-Zionist view of the world. Yet, these two men were moved by the passion to save the remnant of European Jewery. For this leadership and kinship they have earned both my thanks and admiration, and remind me that just as Hitler did view Jews based upon their level of observance, so too should we not do so.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A SAFE HAVEN: HARRY S. TRUMAN & THE FOUNDING OF ISRAEL, June 1, 2009

By	R. E. Cohen "BOB COHEN" (KINGSTON, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I am an enthusiastic reader of mysteries and thrillers, but I have to tell you that "A Safe Haven: Harry S. Truman and The Founding of Israel" was both a page turner and very hard to put down. In fact, I gave up reading a great detective story just to finish this book. As Cokie Robert's so wisely said, even though you know how the story ends it still keeps you on the edge of your seat.

What the Radoshes have done is show the kaleidoscope of faiths, political maneuverings, personality conflicts set in the aftermath of the Holocaust, with the surviving Jews in DP camps, some as tragic as the concentration camps. How our State Department, the Zionists, the anti-Zionists and most importantly, Harry Truman reacted to this reality is shown in a swift and sharp chronology that shows the day by day, week by week, month by month trials and tribulations of those with power and those without.

There are wonderfully juicy stories including Harry Truman saying to his old (Jewish) pal, Eddie Jacobson, who was trying to convince him to allow Chaim Weizman one more visit to the White House, "You win, you bald-headed S.O.B. I will see him..." and then after the State of Israel was recognized Chaim Weizmann saying, when responding to Truman who said "that he was the President of so many millions of Americans, Chaim retorted, 'But I am the President of a million presidents!' The joke was not lost on Truman." Truman perceived Weizmann as a prophet of old and the mutual respect they had for eachother is a wonder to read about.

There are a number of wonders, suprises, and head-twisters in the book. I dont want to be a "spoiler" and reveal the biggest ones - but Clark Clifford being the foremost pro-State of Israel supporter in Truman's cabinet, and George Marshall the most anti; Bevin of England almost qualifying as an anti-Semite, and the pro-State of Israel position taken by the Soviet Union. all came as revelations to me. I am tempted to tell you the Radoshes conclusion about FDR - but do read this book now and find out for yourselves.

Perhaps one of the most important aspects of the book is that though it is about events now sixty years in the past - I was between 8-10 years old - it has both disturbing and enlightening things to say (inadvertently) about the events happening in the Middle East today. As the saying goes: some things never change - but then again some things do - and change can come from the most unexpected directions and from people, like President Truman, whom you might never thought would play the role he did play when the Middle East was in crises.

I think this book should be read by both the students and professors of American and Israeli history, by President Obama and his cabinet, by every Jew and non-Jew pondering the future of Israel, and by every thriller aficianado who needs to be reminded, once in a while, that truth can be stranger (and more exciting) than fiction.

Cantor Bob Cohen