Recently a right wing nincompoop named Pnina Lubin lectured me on why President Obama and other Democrats were anti-Semitic, anti-Israel or just plain obtuse. She asserted that the decades of Democratic support for Israel, even when compared to years of Republican opposition to Israel from 1945-1968, is mere history and not relevant. And BTW, she wrote, Truman’s support for Israel was due to his “Christian Faith,” so why quibble about the intent of right wing Christian believer’s support of Israel?

I have posted the list of letters sent to President Truman, as compiled by the Harry S. Truman Library, which advocate American support for the creation of the State of Israel. If you look carefully at this list you will find that the vast majority of these letters come from Jewish writers, and especially from Eddie Solomon, Truman’s old friend and fellow shop owner from Missouri, who historians have long noted was the crucial voice affecting Truman’s position. You will also note that although many non-Jews also sought Truman’s ear on this issue, none wrote as Christians, advanced a theological argument or were evangelical, fundamentalist or right-wing Christians. Dean Acheson? Clark Clifford. Dean Rusk? Are you kidding me?

Pnina Lubin and her ilk think that facts are ancient history irrelevant to the truth. It’s simply a waste of time to look at the actual documents addressed to President Truman. Why get confused by the facts? This is how we end up with the political divisions which beset us today. We’re not a nation of Republicans and Democrats; we’re a nation of people who think facts matter and people who believe that facts are merely inconvenient, troublesome, just another name for lies. —Rabbi Kerry Baker

See documents at the Harry S. Truman Library & Museum’s on the Recognition of the State of Israel: http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/israel/large/