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Shertok Tells Marshall Jews Prepared for a Truce

(May 7, 1948)

In early May 1948, before Israel declared independence, some American Jews were apparently communicating with the State Department regarding whether the Jews in Palestine supported a truce in the fighting. Future Israeli Prime Minister Moshe Shertok wrote to Secretary of State George Marshall to explain that no one else spoke for the Jewish people in Palestine and that they indeed were interested in an end to the fighting so long as the Arabs went along, that Jewish rights were protected and that the Jews not be put at a disadvantage. He also makes clear the opposition to any deferral of Israel’s proclamation of independence.