ABSTRACT

This chapter shows how Eleanor Roosevelt found herself isolated from her government colleagues as Truman, Marshall, and others expressed their disagreement with her position of unconditional support for the Zionist agenda. Neither the State Department, the Policy Planning Staff nor the US citizens who petitioned her were able to dissuade her from her immutable stance on Palestine. By 1947 her interest in Zionism was highly developed and it abutted with her view of what would be best for US national security in the region: she was convinced that a Jewish enclave would protect Western interests. In order to protect the Jews in Palestine, she was willing to exhort measures of extreme violence in order to still the disquiet of the recalcitrant 'Arabs', exposing a purpose that was unusual in an individual concerned with peace. The chapter traces the role Roosevelt played in guiding the US administration towards supporting a Jewish state in Palestine during 1947–1948.