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Truman Reassures Weizmann Regarding Israel Keeping Negev

(November 29, 1948)

In an effort to end the conflict between Israel and the Arabs, UN Mediator Folke Bernadotte had proposed that Israel give up the Negev. Israel opposed the idea and Israeli President Chaim Weizmann asked President Truman to support Israel’s position. Truman wrote back assuring Weizmann that he agreed and said the Export-Import Bank was considering a loan to Israel. He closed by saying, “I want to tell you how happy and impressed I have been at the remarkable progress made by the new state of Israel. What you have received at the hands of the world has been far less than was your due. But you have more than made the cost of what you have received, and I admire you for it.”