Photo Friday: A Presidential Friend of Israel

Stand for Israel  |  February 21, 2020

In 1948, as the new Jewish state prepared to declare her independence, the President of the United States had a big decision to make. While President Harry Truman supported the creation of the modern state of Israel, many of his advisors tried to talk him out of such a stance. Ignoring this advice and doing what was right, President Truman declared on May 14:

The United States recognizes the provisional government as the de facto authority of the new state of Israel.

In this photo taken three years later, President Truman at last visited the Holy Land and the friends there he had stood by, two of them being Israeli Ambassador to the U.S., Abba Eban, and Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion. Shabbat shalom, friends.