Struggle for cooperation and integration: American Zionists and Arab oil, 1940s

Abstract

From the late 1930s, American Jewry grew in prominence within the international Jewish framework and the Zionist movement. This was a natural consequence of the rising importance of the United States with its increased involvement in the Middle East, and the crisis of European Jewry that reached its tragic climax in the Holocaust. An examination of political events in the Zionist movement in Palestine and in the international arena reveals the intense involvement of American Zionists between the 1930s and the founding of Israel in 1948. After the Holocaust and perceiving the chance to realize Zionist aims, American Jews in general, and members of the Zionist movement in particular, had an exceptional opportunity to enlist American Jewry into the Zionist cause.' The leadership of the American Zionist movement was not content to serve Zionism and the Jewish community in Palestine economically and politically. They also tried to use the window of opportunity to influence the development and structure of the future Jewish national home, and the manner in which a Jewish state would fit into the Middle East. The central role of American Zionists, they felt, obliged them to confront key questions that would arise with the war's end, and, most importantly, the place of the future Jewish state in its geographical region. Documents indicate that the American Zionist leaders went beyond the question of Jewish-Arab relations: they proposed plans that dealt with such questions as water, the future refugee problem, regional economic cooperation and the role of international organizations in the Middle East, with a view to assuring JewishArab coexistence and cooperation. These American Zionist attempts to influence Jewish-Arab relations met with strenuous opposition from David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the Zionist executive at the time and the most important leader of the Jewish community in Palestine. In the end, Jewish-Arab relations were determined by the Zionist establishment in Palestine in accordance with political and social realities that developed there, and were altogether different from the ideas expressed in American Zionist plans. Just how deeply American Zionism was involved in the future of the Middle East and attempted to influence events in Palestine is apparent in relation to the oil issue in the 1940s, especially in the latter half of the decade, when political activity leading to Israel's establishment intensified.2 The mounting importance of oil for the Allied war effort and the American economy caused the United States to be increasingly involved in the Middle East. The American Zionist establishment felt obliged to try to influence the patterns of that involvement. Documents of American