Weizmann Asks Truman to Recognize Jewish State,
President is Noncommittal
(May 13, 15, 1948)
On the eve of Israel’s declaration of independence, Chaim Weizmann wrote to President Truman thanking him for his contribution to a just settlement of the Palestine question. He was alarmed by the State Department effort to sabotage the partition resolution with a proposal for a trusteeship and wanted the President to support the plan for the creation of a Jewish state and to “promptly recognize the Provisional Government of the new Jewish State.” The president’s response was noncommittal and, oddly, was dated the day after he recognized Israel following its declaration of independence on May 14, 1948.