On the United States and Palestine, 1948

Taking a page from the great historian of race in America, Eric Foner, it is useful to recall that revising interpretations of history is intrinsic to the study of history, which does not make it any less controversial a process. This applies to the study of US policy in the Middle East, and notably to the records of the origins of US involvement in the conflict over Palestine as it evolved in the immediate postwar years, that is between 1945-1949.

And yet, what is surprising about such revision as I propose is that they are based on sources that have long been in the public record. They are declassified and accessible. I refer to the Foreign Relations of the U.S. series, and notably, the volume dealing with 1948, as well as select papers in the collections of the H.S. Truman Library, in addition to other sources.

Considered together, these sources enrich our knowledge of the conditions surrounding the postwar origins of US policy in the Middle East, and the circumstances leading to its involvement in the Palestine question and, more generally, the struggle over Palestine. Further, they reveal the nature of US interpretations of that conflict, the understanding of its origins and potential consequences, short of its resolution.  What emerges from an examination of US policy is the importance US officials attached to the origins and expansion of the Palestinian refugee problem and their endorsement of refugee repatriation. But as US sources also reveal, US policy was not static. Its evolution involved a reevaluation of US policy toward Israel and Palestine in 1948-1949 based on an evaluation of Israel’s military potential and its possible role in US regional strategy.  To reexamine the trajectory and consequences of US policy in 1948-49 enables us to appreciate the roots of present policy.