311. Memorandum of a Conversation, White House, Washington, April 26, 1956, 11:10–11:50 a.m.1
PARTICIPANTS
- The President
- Rabbi Hillel Silver
- Secretary Dulles
Rabbi Silver made a very strong plea for arms to Israel along the conventional lines, picking up all of the arguments of Eban in answering the counterarguments which I had made to Eban. It seemed obvious that Silver had been pretty well briefed by the Israelis. He argued that since we felt that Israel should get arms from somewhere and since they could not get arms unless we did something, therefore we should do something. The President and I explained our desire to be able to exert an influence throughout the area for peace, and that while we were constantly reviewing the question of defensive arms of some kind for Israel, we had not yet concluded that this would really serve the interests of peace in the area. I said that we did not want our policy to seem to be made by the Zionists and that I did not think that the mass meetings and public appeals helped the situation. Silver seemed somewhat resentful of this intimation.
The President said that he was not going to be influenced at all by political considerations and that if doing what he thought right resulted in his not being elected, that would be quite agreeable to him. Silver said, “You can be reelected without a single Jewish vote.”