Tuesday, September 16, 4:30 PM - EDT E51-395 MIT Tang Center, 70 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA

Sponsored by the Center for International Studies at MIT. Speaker Irene L. Gendzier, Professor Emerita at Boston University

What did US officials know of the conflict in Palestine in 1948 and does it matter in terms of how it affected US policy in Palestine and the region in the late 1940s and after? Did such knowledge have long range implications for the course of US policy that are relevant today? These questions seek to clarify what US officials on the ground in Palestine and across the Middle East, as well as those in the State and Defense Departments in Washington, DC, knew about the ongoing conflict in Palestine. On the basis of evidence collected in US official sources, such as those provided in the volumes of The Foreign Relations of the US, it is clear that US officials in the State and Defense Departments and those stationed in the Middle East were informed about the origins, course, and potential consequences of the ongoing conflict in Palestine, and its significance for the US in the region. In sum, US officials understood what the ongoing conflict in Palestine in 1948 entailed, and they also understood the limitations of US policy. It is clear that such knowledge did not lead to unanimous accord among the officials concerned as to the preferred course of US policy. In short, knowing the nature of the conflict at hand was not enough to explain US policy, which according to sources was a product of calculated interests of the US role in the region as interpreted by State and Defense Department officials with the critical input of high-level executives and influential parties. The policy and politics that ensued did not reflect a unanimous view of the problem of Palestine or the region then or now, where common parlance suggests that there is a near permanent ‘Mid-East Crisis’ confronting the region and US policy. The absence of such accord, however, by no means indicates the absence of knowledge of the conflict itself.

Irene L. Gendzier is Professor Emerita at Boston University, where she was a long-time member of the faculty, serving in the Departments of Political Science and History, as well as being a member of the African Studies Center.

The lecture will be livestreamed.

For more info: Emile Bustani Seminar: "Does Knowing Matter?: US Policy in the Palestine Conflict, 1948-2023" - MIT Events

Livestream link (no registration required): Launch Meeting - Zoom