Truman on Recognizing Israel and the Partition of Palestine

none of them. We had several other people

in the country, even among the Jews,

the Zionists particularly, who were against

anything that was to be done

if they couldn't have the whole of Palestine

and everything handed to them on a silver plate

so they wouldn't have to do anything.

It couldn't be done.

We had to take it in small doses.

You can't move five or six million people

out of a country and fill it up

with five or six million more

and expect both sets of them to be pleased.

We had all sorts of objections

to everything that was done.

Something had to be done.

We went ahead and done it and

had it done and now it's working out eventually.

I think we'll have them all satisfied,

but it's going to take a great deal of time yet

to get the job done.

Could you tell us that they were worried about the war

with the Arabs?

1549.

But don't think that decision to recognize Israel is an easy one.

I had to make a compromise with the Arabs and divide Palestine.

The Jews wanted to chase all the Arabs

into the Tigris and Euphrates River

and the Arabs wanted to chase all the Jews

into the Red Sea and I was trying,

what I was trying to do was to find a homeland

for the Jews and still be just with the Arabs.

But when you go into a thing of that kind,

the people you help most are the ones

that get most angry with you.

Both of them were against me on the situation,

but as President of the United States, I

paid no attention to them, carried out

what I thought was right and I had the support

of the Congress and I could do it, which is unusual in

these days. Could you tell us specifically

that a lot of Jewish people were against you too?

Oh well, there were a lot of Jewish people against me

because they wanted to hold Palestine.

As I say, they wanted to drive all the Arabs into the Tigris and Euphrates River.