Elected and the Chosen: Why American Presidents Have Supported Jews and Israel From George Washington to Barack Obama.

The notion that every American president has supported Jews and Israel will not ring true with all American Jews. But Brian goes back to the country's founding, when the financial support of Jewish colonist Haym Solomon "saved the newly created United States from financial disaster" to probe America's continuing commitment to Israel's security, and the personal relationships of U.S. presidents with American Jews, Zionists, and Israeli leaders. Prolific biographer Brian (Joseph Pulitzer: A Life) tracks the U.S.'s protection of "the chosen" people in Israel and elsewhere, and the varying motives of "the elected". In doing so, tension between presidents' public stances and private attitudes on Israeli politics is conveyed to occasionally shocking effect, exemplified by President Nixon, whose Oval Office tapes revealed his anti-Semitism yet who made larger commitments of military aid to Israel than any of his predecessors. The book's president-by-president narrative is formulaic, and Brian indiscriminately mentions every Jew ever appointed to government (Madeleine Albright, after all, wasn't even aware of her Jewish heritage when Clinton named her secretary of state). The most value in the book is explaining how the U.S.'s support of the creation and security of Israel is related to the founding principles of the country, the colonists desire for religious freedom Agent: Phyllis Westberg, Harold Ober Associates. (Sept.)