Re: Israel & the Korean War

[<DasHaas@aol.com>]

In a message dated 10/7/2001 2:22:45 PM Pacific Daylight Time, mdavino@yahoo.com writes:


> I saw Shimon Peres, the Israeli Foreign Minister, on
> TV today talking about the US strikes on the Taliban. 
> When he was talking about how good an ally Israel is
> to the US, he mentioned that during the Korean War,
> David Ben-Gurion offered Israeli forces to the US.
> Apparently the US turned them down. Does anyone know
> anything about this?  


 US support for Israel has been a fact for so long that I was surprised a few years ago to read that as late as the Eisenhower period, the US had some distinct reservations about destablizing the entire Middle-east to satisfy Jewish aspirations in Palestine.  And that being so, I think the obvious "hook" of accepting Israel's offer to help in Korea was pretty apparent to Ike.  Don't know what Truman's involvement was.

Col. Mike Haas, USAF, ret., author
In the Devil's Shadow: UN Special Operations during the Korean War
Apollo's Warriors: US Air Force Special Operations during the Cold War
Member: Air Commando, Special Forces, UDT-SEAL, and Special Operations Associations