Why Israel is becoming a partisan cause in the United States
It goes to the essence of the Jewish state, and of the American one
The 75-year partnership between America and Israel stems partly from the friendship between just two men. After the first world war broke out, Edward Jacobson, a son of Lithuanian immigrants in Kansas City, Missouri, enlisted with an artillery unit and caught the attention of his lieutenant. “I have a Jew in charge of the canteen by the name of Jacobson and he is a crackerjack,” wrote the lieutenant, Harry Truman, to his fiancée.
The two men became so close that after the war they started Truman & Jacobson, a haberdashery in Kansas City, which prospered until the Depression upended it. The failure did not shake the friendship, nor did the subsequent divergence in their careers. Jacobson became a travelling salesman, whereas Truman began his improbable political ascent.
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline "Present at the creation"
From the April 29th 2023 edition
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