Neil Rogall on Truman supported Jewish immigration to Palestine after WWII

By 1945 the US government fully supported the Zionists.  They knew how important oil had been in war and were keen to have reliable allies in the Middle East.  The news of the death camps in Germany led to worldwide sympathy for the Jews.  The Zionists used this to bolster their demands.  President Roosevelt’s successor Harry Truman put pressure on the British to allow all Jewish holocaust survivors to be sent to Palestine.  The British refused.  This wasn’t sympathy on Truman’s part.  Most camp survivors wanted to go to the USA. But Truman was an openly racist and anti-Semitic politician who had only been chosen as Roosevelt’s running mate to placate southern 'Dixiecrats.'  Truman was opposed to letting Jewish refugees into the US. However, in 1947, the Zionists won a key propaganda battle.  The Exodus, a packed refugee ship was sent back from Palestine to Germany.  Much western opinion saw this as an inhuman act.

~ Neil Rogall, "Making the Palestinians the scapegoats for Nazi crimes," rs21, October 9, 2014

Harry Truman with Israeli President Chaim Weizmann