Eisenhower Says U.S. Jews ‘are First Americans, Not Natives of Israel’

President Eisenhower has indicated–in a coast to coast television network program–that he feels that the voting in the 1956 Presidential election proved that American Jews “are first Americans and not natives of Israel.”

The former President made that comment in a discussion of political pressures associated with the 1956 elections which took place shortly after Israel’s Sinai campaign. He made the comment in the second of a series on his views on the presidency taped by CBS Television. Walter Cronkite, the interviewer, introduced the subject with this question:

“The Israelis claim that the Sinai campaign, as they called this operation, was to eliminate Soviet stores of arms in Sinai that they believed Nasser was about to use against them. Now, here is a specific question where foreign policy had very distinct and immediate domestic repercussions in the great support that Israel has in the United States. Now, what were the pressures brought on you at that time?”

General Eisenhower replied: “The pressures weren’t so much as I felt immediately as I was sort of warned by different people, some of them great friends of mine. They said the election is just coming up and if you do so and if you don’t go along with Britain and Israel, you will lose the election. Certainly, you’ll lose New York State.”

Mr. Eisenhower continued: “There was a–one of the Ambassadors–Israel Ambassadors was just returning to his country for a conference with Mr. Ben-Gurion and I called in Mr. Dulles and I said ‘you please tell this ambassador, and in no uncertain terms, just exactly these words: that I hope he is not making the mistake of thinking that any concern of mine about the national election year will change my decision with respect to the use of troops that had not yet been used in any way.”

Abba Eban was then Israel Ambassador to the United States. The late John Foster Dulles was then Secretary of State in the Eisenhower Administration. The former President then said about his conversation with Mr. Dulles that he had told his Secretary of State that “Because frankly, it’s of no great moment to the United States whether I’m elected or re-elected, and it is of great moment to the United States that we do the right thing.”

Mr. Eisenhower then added: “Well, I was called up, I even remember, by a friend of mine in New York who said, ‘Well, you lost New York State.’ Well, the fact of it is that I don’t think New York State went for any national ticket on a larger majority than it did in 1956 for the ticket that I headed. So I don’t think that sometimes these prophets are very accurate, because, after all, I think the Jewish vote there indicated that after all they are first Americans and not natives of Israel.”