As presidential press releases go, this one was very short and enormously consequential. Eleven minutes after Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, the White House issued a two-sentence statement.
The first said simply, “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 second sentence made history: “The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the State of Israel.”
It was signed “Harry Truman.”
The president’s decision made America the first country to recognize the new nation and made him a hero to Jews around the world. It also helped make the Democrat Party a reliable ally of Israel for decades as war after war threatened its survival.
Unfortunately, Truman would not recognize his party today.
An anti-Israel faction has taken root among Democrats and was on full display during Israel’s clash with Hamas. Because that faction is largely synonymous with the party’s ascendant far-left wing, more moderate Dems are increasingly afraid to speak up for Israel, just as they are afraid to speak up against the emergence of socialism and anti-white racism in their party.
Even instances of overt anti-Semitism cannot shake them from their silence.
The Dems’ gradual divorce from Israel picked up speed under Barack Obama, who took apology tours to Arab capitals and wooed Iran while giving Israel the back of his hand. Donald Trump flipped the script by embracing Israel, recognizing Jerusalem as its capital and moving our embassy there. Trump also withdrew from Obama’s feckless nuclear pact with Iran.
But now the pendulum is swinging back again as President Biden bends to the radical elements of his party.
The 11-day war that was halted with Thursday’s cease-fire revealed how Hamas has vastly expanded and improved its rocket arsenal. Thankfully, most of the unguided explosives were no match for Israel’s superior offensive and defensive capabilities, but this was the first time the terrorists in Gaza put all of Israel in their rockets’ range.
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