Ten minutes after the new nation's Caesarean birth last week, Harry Truman recognized the new State of Israel.
Thus the U.S.'s merry-go-round policy on Palestine came to a brief stop. For the moment everyone could get a fixed look at the breathless man on the carousel.
Only last November, anxious for Zionist political support, Harry Truman had plumped for partition, had ordered U.S. delegates to force it through the United Nations. Last March, anxious about Arab threats, he had startled the world by abandoning partition, plumping for trusteeship. The United Nations threw trusteeship out the window. But when the Jews took...