The other day I posted an article by Daniel Greenfield about FDR’s antisemitism, ”Saudi Arabia can have all our Jews”, faithful TT commenter, WTD, sends the following:
Contrast FDR with distant cousin Teddy Roosevelt’s view of Israel and Jews
As president and a former secretary of the navy, Roosevelt was quick to resort to “gunboat diplomacy,” especially in the Middle East. InPower, Faith and Fantasy, Amb. Michael B. Oren notes that as part of his negotiations over the rule of Morocco, the president “secured his country’s customary concerns in the area, protecting North African Jews from oppression and American merchants from unfair restrictions and fees.”
Roosevelt also issued a strong letter of rebuke to the Russian Czar in 1903 after the murder of 49 Jews during a pogrom in Kishinev.
Oren’s opus on America and the Middle East also cites correspondence by Roosevelt in 1918 in which he wrote, “It seems to me that it is entirely proper to start a Zionist State around Jerusalem.” In another letter, the former president stated, “[T]here can be no peace worth having” until Armenian and Arabs are granted independence “and the Jews given control of Palestine.”
NOTE: Yes, I know that Teddy was caught up in the progressive movement of the day, and made many unfortunate policies because of it, but that’s for another day.
