In 1948, amid the conflict in Palestine, President Harry Truman faced intense pressure from Zionist lobbyists and domestic advisers to support the establishment of a Jewish state. However, his top foreign policy and national security officials, led by Secretary of State George C. Marshall, unanimously recommended against recognizing a Jewish state, fearing it would provoke war in the Middle East and jeopardize US relations with Arab and Muslim nations.
Marshall, renowned for his patriotic service and for launching the postwar European recovery plan bearing his name, warned Truman against the policy strongly advocated by Clark Clifford, Truman’s main political adviser, to recognize Israel before its formal establishment.
More than two decades later, President Gerald Ford initiated a "reassessment" of US policy in the Middle East, reflecting ongoing complexities in the region.
Additionally, according to Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to President Jimmy Carter, Israeli official Moshe Dayan pressured Carter by threatening to leverage American Jewish public opinion unless the US opposed an independent West Bank and provided economic and military aid to Israel. Brzezinski stated, “Dayan in effect blackmailed the President... ‘I can go to the American Jews.’” Faced with this, Carter conceded.
The narrative underscores how successive US presidents have navigated the influence of the pro-Israel lobby amid broader Middle East policy challenges.
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