When presidents curse at the Jews

Going all the way back to the 1940s, presidents or other senior US officials occasionally have said some ugly things about Israel or Jews.

By  Rafael Medoff, IH     02-18-2024

US President Joe Biden is reported to have used profanity in two recent outbursts against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Sadly, such eruptions are nothing new. Going all the way back to the 1940s, presidents or other senior US officials occasionally have said some ugly things about Israel or Jews.

In 1943, Samuel Rosenman, the chief speechwriter for President Franklin D. Roosevelt, confided to a colleague that the president was “much displeased” to learn that four hundred rabbis were planning to march to the White House to plead for the rescue of Jewish refugees. Rosenman said FDR was so upset that he “used language that morning while breakfasting which would have pleased Hitler himself.”

Syndicated newspaper columnist Drew Pearson reported in early 1948 that President Harry Truman privately railed against American Jews who were urging him to support the creation of a Jewish state: “Pounding his desk, [Truman] used words that can’t be repeated about ‘the (blank) New York Jews.’ ‘They’re disloyal to their country. Disloyal!’ he cried.” Truman denied the story, but Pearson’s source, New York Post publisher Ted Thackery, did not back down.

The White House tapes released by the Richard Nixon Presidential Library revealed some ugly remarks in the Oval Office in the early 1970s. In one, the president could be heard becoming angry at his attorney, Leonard Garment, and shouting, “Goddamn his Jewish soul!”

In another, Nixon angrily complained to Secretary of State Henry Kissinger about American Jews urging him to press the Soviet Union on Jewish emigration. Referring to the possibility of Jewish demonstrations outside a forthcoming US-Soviet summit, Nixon thundered: “Let me say, Henry, it’s gonna be the worst thing that happened to Jews in American history. If they torpedo this summit – and it might go down for other reasons – I’m gonna put the blame on them, and I’m going to do it publicly at 9 o’clock at night before 80 million people. They put the Jewish interest above America’s interest, and it’s about goddamn time that the Jew in America realizes he’s an American first and a Jew second!”

Kissinger used vulgar language in describing Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and his cabinet in 1975. The incident took place during a round of shuttle diplomacy that Kissinger was conducting between Israel and Egypt. According to Prof. Gil Troy’s book, Moynihan’s Moment, Kissinger at one point became frustrated that Rabin was not making enough concessions to Egypt, and complained to President Gerald Ford that Israel’s leaders were “the world’s worst s—ts.”

Not that Americans have a monopoly on such ugliness. There also have been several incidents along these lines involving European diplomats.

In 2001, the French ambassador to Great Britain, Daniel Bernard, launched into an obscenity-laced rant against Israel and its prime minister, Ariel Sharon. At a dinner party, Bernard told Conrad Black of the Daily Telegraph that “All the current troubles in the world are because of that s——y little country, Israel.” Despite an international uproar, Ambassador Bernard refused to apologize, claiming his remark had been distorted.

In 2009, a senior official in the British Foreign Office, Rowan Laxton, unleashed a profane tirade against the Israeli government headed by Ehud Olmert. During a workout in a London gym, Laxton shouted about the “f—-ing Israelis, f—-ing Jews,” and declared that the Israelis should be “wiped off the face of the earth,” according to staff members at the gym. During his trial on charges of racial harassment, Laxton’s defense was, “We are all human. I erred. I don’t normally swear.”

Perhaps the best known contemporary example of a government official cursing the Jews involved Secretary of State James A. Baker, in 1992. His cabinet colleague, House and Urban Development secretary Jack Kemp, leaked to the media that when Baker was told of Jewish concerns about US policy toward Israel, he replied, “F—- the Jews, they don’t vote for us anyway.” Baker’s spokeswoman called the report “garbage,” but New York Times columnist William Safire, after investigating the episode, wrote: “I can confirm that Baker did say that, with the same vulgarism that made it so memorable, to two high officials on two different occasions.”

Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, reported in October 2014 that “a senior Obama administration official” derided Israel’s prime minister as “chickens—t” for not making more concessions to the Palestinian Authority. No US official publicly took responsibility for the remark; but nobody in Washington seemed to doubt the accuracy of Goldberg’s account.

In a 2021 interview, Donald Trump used profanity in denouncing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump said he was angry that Netanyahu congratulated Joe Biden on winning the 2020 election.

Whether the president has been a Democrat or a Republican, and regardless of who happened to be Israel’s prime minister, the phenomenon of a rage-filled or obscenity-laced outburst against Israel or Jews is a recurring feature in the political world. So perhaps Israelis should not take the latest reported vulgarity to heart. It wasn’t the first, it probably won’t be the last, and it reflects more on the speaker than the target.

February 18, 2024 | 5 Comments »

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  1. President Carter gave antisemitic Sunday School Lessons in the White House. And, yes, it’s what your thinking it was. Repeatedly. I found an absurd Haaretz article from 40 years later saying “U.S. Jews (not American Jews, mind you in left-speak) owe him an apology. 😀 and another one from 2009 purporting to be an apology from him in which he says he can’t imagine why we should be upset with him about but if he’s done or said anything to offend us, he’s sorry. Of course,Haaretz, the Fakestinian paper in Hebrew, thought it was just peachy that he gave Begin a hard time about settlements. And, of course, everybody knows what an openly malicious, mendacious and obsessive enemy of Israel he became as an ex-President.

    https://www.commentary.org/articles/meir-soloveichik/jimmy-carter-sunday-school-years/

  2. On the other hand:

    The U.S. House of Representatives voted unanimously, 418-0, to condemn Hamas terrorists for rape and sexual violence on Oct. 7. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), a progressive member of the “Squad” who has a long history of antisemitic comments, voted “present,” as the House passed H.Res.966 on Wednesday.5 days ago

    – JNS

  3. Truman approves aid to Palestine, March 24, 1949
    President Harry S Truman announces the government seizure of the steel industry on April 8, 1952.
    President Harry S Truman. | AP Photo

    By ANDREW GLASS

    03/24/2017 12:06 AM EDT

    On this day in 1949, President Harry S. Truman authorized $16 million in U.S. aid for Palestinian refugees who had been displaced in the aftermath of the 1948 War of Independence waged between Israel and its Arab foes.

    Truman’s action constituted half of a $32 million United Nations Palestinian relief package. In signing the enabling resolution, the president said he hoped that “before the relief money ran out, means will be devised for the permanent solution of the refugee problem.” Truman argued that “U.S. aid would contribute to the long-term stability of the Middle East through [integrating] Palestinian refugees into the economic life of the area.”

    The 1949 aid plan capped several years of conflict between pro- and anti-Zionist factions in the United States and within Truman’s administration. At the time, some key members of Truman’s administration feared U.S. support for a Jewish state would threaten relations with oil-rich Arab nations — nations that viewed Palestine as historic Arab land. Meantime, the Soviet Union, while a heavily anti-Semitic entity on its home soil, pursued a pro-Israeli foreign policy.

    In 1945, as Franklin D. Roosevelt’s vice president, and then early in his own presidency, Truman supported immigration for Holocaust survivors to Palestine. But he initially resisted the idea of establishing a Jewish state there. In a letter he wrote at the time, Truman acknowledged that “it is a very explosive situation we are facing. What I am trying to do is make the whole world safe for the Jews.”

    Truman also sought to maintain good relations with Arab states, particularly Saudi Arabia, upon whom the United States was becoming increasingly dependent for its oil supplies.

    At the time, Republicans favored partitioning Palestine to create a separate Jewish state. Surveys indicated that most Americans preferred to see the creation of a Jewish state rather than to absorb many post-war Jewish refugees.
    Lobbyists on both sides of the issue courted Truman. When a prominent rabbi pounded on Truman’s desk in the Oval Office, Truman said: “No one, but no one, comes into the office of the president of the United States and shouts at him, or pounds on his desk! If anyone is going to do any shouting or pounding in here, it will be me!”

    When the State Department and the U.N. ambassador made unauthorized and incorrect announcements implying that the president opposed partition, Truman called them “striped pants conspirators” who had “completely balled up the Palestine situation.” Truman wrote that he had decided to do “what I think is right and let them all go to hell.”

    In January 1950, Truman followed up the 1949 aid package by asking Congress to grant another $27 million to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, which continues its work to this day.

    https://www.politico.com/story/2017/03/truman-approves-aid-to-palestine-march-24-1949-236260#:~:text=In%20January%201950%2C%20Truman%20followed,its%20work%20to%20this%20day.

  4. Eisenhower Says He Approved Suspension of U.S. Aid to Israel
    October 22, 1953
    SEE ORIGINAL DAILY BULLETIN FROM THIS DATE

    President Eisenhower made known today at a press conference that he was consulted by Secretary of State John Foster Dulles on the Arab-Israel situation and participated with approval in the decision to cut off United States economic aid for Israel. Asked if the suspension of aid had been discussed by him with Sec. Dulles, the President answered affirmatively, in a firm and emphatic tone.

    Meanwhile, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced today that to create “a better understanding of the Bank in the Middle East area, ” Dorsey Stephens has been sent as the Bank’s representative for the region to open offices in Beirut after October 27. The countries in which Mr. Stephens will carry out his duties include Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria. An application has been made by Israel for membership in the Bank but no action has been taken as yet.

    Egyptian Ambassador Ahmen Hussein today congratulated President Eisenhower in a message which said: “The decision of the Eisenhower Administration to stop aid to Israel as a result of Israel’s disregard of United Nations’ rulings will do much to strengthen the faith of the Arab world in the United States. “

    The State Department today received a report from Amman that a mob tried to storm the United States Information Office but was repelled by troops of the Arab Legion. Glass windows were destroyed and a U. S. Embassy automobile wrecked. The mob also cried for “revenge in blood” against Israel.

    https://www.jta.org/archive/eisenhower-says-he-approved-suspension-of-u-s-aid-to-israel

  5. FDR also had a penchant for anti-Jewish “humor.” His grandson Curtis told Roosevelt biographer Geoffrey Ward that he recalled “hearing the president tell mildly anti-Semitic stories in the White House,” in which “the protagonists were always Lower East Side Jews with heavy accents.” FDR also once joked that relatives might suspect his fifth child was Jewish, in view of the baby’s “slightly Hebraic nose.”

    At the Yalta conference in 1945, Roosevelt shared an “I don’t want them and you wouldn’t either”-type joke with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin: When FDR mentioned he would soon be seeing Saudi Arabia’s king, Ibn Saud, Stalin asked Roosevelt if he intended to make any concessions to him; the president replied “that there was only one concession he thought he might offer and that was to give him the 6 million Jews in the United States.”

    That remark was recorded in the official transcript of the conversation, but the State Department suppressed it for several decades for fear it would harm Roosevelt’s image if the public knew what he had said about Jews.

    https://www.israelhayom.com/opinions/just-kidding-racist-presidential-humor-from-fdr-to-trump/

    —

    Which reminds me of the fact that the Loftus book, “The Secret War” has a lot that is believable but I have to take some of it with a grain of salt because he says Roosevelt was sympathetic to Jews and to Zionism. He also says LBJ wasn’t which is nonsense, as is well-documented. Those, coupled with the fact that most of the book is substantiated by reference to anonymous retired spies.

    —
    Actually, the most threatening president to Israel was Eisenhower and it was LBJ who stopped him.

    https://www.jta.org/archive/eisenhower-reveals-his-1957-aims-to-penalize-israel-on-sinai-issue

    Though, on the other hand, it was General Eisenhower who ordered that the liberated death camps, which he personally visited, be filmed and that the Holocaust be documented and publicized so no one could deny it. He was a mixed bag.

    https://perspectives.ushmm.org/item/film-of-general-dwight-d-eisenhower-visiting-the-ohrdruf-camp

    And Roosevelt and his antisemitic secretary of state, Cordell Hull, immediately reversed Herbert Hoover’s policy and began stone-walling Jewish applications. The quota was never filled in his entire 12 years.

    And he sabotaged other countries taking in Jews and rescuers like Varian Fry.

    And, of course, like Churchill and Stalin, he made the decision not to bomb the death camps.

    Though a competent war leader, Roosevelt’s death in 1945 was timely and truly a blessing. Though most American Jews, kept in the dark, mourned someone they thought was a friend. Stalin was mourned too. People got trampled at his funeral trying to get a look at his mummified carcass. So much for the wisdom of public opinion.