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TechnoratiThe Right's Game-Playing With 'Dual Loyalty" and 'Anti-Semitism' Accusations
As our political establishment takes new and disturbing steps towards a more confrontational approach with Iran, the effort to stomp out any discussion of the role Israel plays in that policy has once again intensified. Last week, Joe Klein -- basically out of the blue -- observed that while many advocates of an attack on Iraq (which once included Klein) were motivated by "neocolonial" fantasies or ensuring access to Iraq's oil, many other war proponents were motivated by their allegiance to Israel:
The fact that a great many Jewish neoconservatives -- people like Joe Lieberman and the crowd over at Commentary -- plumped for this war, and now for an even more foolish assault on Iran, raised the question of divided loyalties: using U.S. military power, U.S. lives and money, to make the world safe for Israel.
Since then, Klein has escalated the provocative rhetoric, writing several days ago:
You want evidence of divided loyalties? How about the "benign domino theory" that so many Jewish neoconservatives talked to me about -- off the record, of course -- in the runup to the Iraq war, the idea that Israel's security could be won by taking out Saddam, which would set off a cascade of disaster for Israel's enemies in the region? As my grandmother would say, feh! Do you actually deny that the casus belli that dare not speak its name wasn't, as I wrote in February 2003, a desire to make the world safe for Israel? Why the rush now to bomb Iran, a country that poses some threat to Israel but none -- for the moment -- to the United States . . . unless we go ahead, attack it, and the mullahs unleash Hezbollah terrorists against us? Do you really believe the mullahs would stage a nuclear attack on Israel, destroying the third most holy site in Islam and killing untold numbers of Muslims? I am not ruling out the use of force against Iran -- it may come to that -- but you folks seem to embrace it gleefully.
Then, after Joe Lieberman appeared on Face the Nation last weekend to (as usual) agitate for war with Iran, Klein not-so-cryptically asked: "Again, I wonder why Lieberman is so fixated on Iran."
Needless to say, the assault on Klein has been as vicious, furious and dishonest as it was predictable. As Mickey Kaus notes:
Max Boot, Pete Wehner, Jennifer Rubin, Paul Mirengoff and Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League all wrote confidently outraged responses to Klein's raising of the "divided loyalties" possibility -- and, indeed, it's not the sort of assertion that has typically gone unpunished in the past. When Klein stubbornly failed to back down in a second post, Wehner somewhat smugly anticipated his near-certain demise:
It's like watching a movie that you now know is going to end very badly, and very sadly.
Regarding the ADL's condemnation of Klein, Kaus wrote:
Note to [ADL's Abraham] Foxman: I worked at The New Republic! The magazine supported the war. I consider it's [sic] editor, Martin Peretz, to be a friend and mentor. But if you think Marty's views are uninfluenced by his affinity for Israel -- and that the views of many of the eminent neocons who visited our offices were uninfluenced by "matters of faith" and/or religious identity -- then you don't know Marty and you don't know The New Republic. In fact, you're more than a bit clueless. But you are not clueless.
This attempt to "punish" people who note the role which allegiance to Israel plays in many advocates' desire for a militaristic American Middle East policy has always been an attempt to punish people for expressing a self-evidently true and important point. But that's only the second worst aspect of it. The worst aspect of it is that those who seek to place the "divided loyalty" point off limits are often the ones who most aggressively wield that same claim -- only they do so in service of their right-wing agenda. They seek to create a climate where "dual loyalty" arguments can be exploited by them for political gain, but cannot be spoken of by their political opponents upon pain of being subjected to exploitative, ugly accusations of anti-semitism and other crimes.
As I've documented previously, the very same right-wing advocates who scream "anti-semitism" at anyone, such as Klein, who raises the issue of devotion to Israel themselves constantly argue that American Jews do -- and should -- cast their votes in American elections based upon what is best for Israel. They nakedly trot out the "dual loyalty" argument in order to manipulate American Jews to vote Republican in U.S. elections (e.g.: "the GOP supports Israel and Obama doesn't; therefore, American Jews shouldn't vote for Obama"), while screaming "anti-semitism" the minute the premise is used by their political opponents. The Weekly Standard ran articles openly arguing that American Jews should vote Republican because the GOP is better for Israel, and Joe Lieberman runs around South Florida telling Jewish voters that they should vote for McCain because Obama isn't good for Israel.
The most recent blatant example of nakedly exploiting "dual loyalty" and "anti-Semitism" claims comes from Commentary's Jennifer Rubin. Rubin was one of those most viciously attacking Klein, accusing him last week of spouting what she called "the anti-Semitic argument of 'divided loyalties.'" Yet today -- barely a week later -- Rubin has a long Op-Ed in The Jerusalem Post which is probably the most unabashed expression of this "dual loyalty" argument that I've seen in quite some time.
Her column is devoted to arguing that many American Jews -- despite their commitment to political liberalism -- are (justifiably) reluctant to vote for Obama because "some Jews are incapable of deluding themselves that Obama would be the most resolute candidate in defending Israel." What is that if not an argument that American Jewish voters cast their votes in American elections -- and should do so -- based on what is best for Israel, i.e. for he who is "the most resolute candidate in defending Israel"?
In fact, Rubin's entire column is devoted to the explicit claim that Obama is insufficiently devoted to Israel's interests and, therefore, many American Jews are rightly skeptical of his fitness to be the American President:
The Obama defenders are irked that not all Jews accept at face value Obama's expressions of devotion to Israel and commitment to her security. . . . Many Jewish Obama doubters are convinced that Israel faces a true existential threat unlike any in 35 years. . . . The Obama skeptics do not for a moment believe that Obama, in the face of domestic and international pressure similar to what Nixon faced, would rise to the occasion at a critical moment in Israel's history and "tell them to send everything that can fly" . . . .
AND IF any further proof were needed, Obama's actions with regard to the Kyl-Lieberman Amendment, the measure to classify the Iranian National Guard as a terrorist organization, should settle the question of Obama's intestinal fortitude when it comes to Israel. . . . Once his nomination was secured, Obama told those assembled at the AIPAC convention that he supported classification of the Iranian National Guard as a terrorist organization, a move he well understood was important to Israel's security and to AIPAC's members. Yet under just a smidgen of political pressure during the primary race, he had not been able to muster the will to support a modest measure which inured to Israel's benefit.
Indeed the temptation to believe in Obama's bland promises of support for Israel is a tempting one for liberal Jews. If they can convince themselves that he will be "fine on Israel," no conflict arises between their liberal impulses and their concern for Israel. The urge to believe is a powerful thing, especially when the alternative is an intellectual or moral quandary. . . .
BUT SOME Jews are incapable of deluding themselves that Obama would be the most resolute candidate in defending Israel. . . . And that is why these obstinate Obama skeptics, some even after a lifetime of Democratic voting, will not pull the lever for him. For them some things rank higher than even the top items on the liberal political agenda. The risk is, in their minds, too great that when Israel needs help the most, Obama will buckle and Israel will be crushed.
It's just not possible to find a more explicit accusation of "dual loyalty" than Rubin repeatedly makes in her column. She just claims over and over that American Jewish voters are guided in their political choices by what is best for Israel -- exactly what she called an "anti-semitic argument" when made by Klein -- and she expressly insists that the American President be devoted to promoting Israeli interests, and that this is what American Jewish voters care about. That's the "dual loyalty" argument in its purest form.
But because this claim is put in service of advancing a right-wing agenda -- namely, an attack on Obama and support for a hard-line policy towards Iran -- it's deemed perfectly acceptable. And therein lies the most important point.
"Anti-semitism" accusations have been cynically exploited for so long by right-wing advocates as a bludgeon to silence debates over Middle East policy and for cheap political gain that the accusation has become trivialized to the point of irrelevance. Most ironically of all, the ADL -- whose ostensible central mission is to battle the trivialization of anti-Semitism and Nazism -- has played a leading role in this degradation, constantly exploiting its once-credible imprimatur in highly politicized ways which have nothing to do with real anti-semitism (such as Klein's perfectly legitimate commentary) and everything to do with promoting a hard-line policy in the Middle East and against Iran which is now one of the ADL's top priorities.
Smearing people as anti-Semites for cheap political gain is repellent in its own right and merits a response. But this tactic is particularly dangerous now, as the pressure is obviously being ratcheted up in numerous circles to pursue a far more bellicose policy towards Iran. Responding to the types of disgusting smears that are in Rubin's column and many other places, Obama not only appeared before AIPAC last month and vowed that "the danger from Iran is grave, it is real, and my goal will be to eliminate this threat"; that Iran's "Quds force has rightly been labeled a terrorist organization"; and "I will do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon," but also, when asked last week by a Fox News host to play a "word association game" whereby he should say the first word that comes into his mind, Obama -- when the word was "Iran" -- responded as follows: "threat."
Whether Iran is really a threat to the U.S. (as opposed to Israel) is an absolutely critical matter to examine. It's just not tolerable to allow polemicists from Commentary and Weekly Standard to run around using the "dual loyalty" argument and "anti-semitism" smear to try to manipulate American Jews into voting for McCain and supporting hard-line policies toward Iran, while simultaneously screaming "anti-Semite" at those who argue that an attack on Iran would serve (and is motivated by) Israeli interests, not America's interests. That is a perfectly legitimate issue -- a central issue -- to be freely discussed.
Like everyone else, I don't know whether there is really any serious intent in the Bush administration to initiate some sort of attack on Iran (many very credible analysts highly doubt it will happen). But the risk is substantial enough -- and the situation is dangerous enough -- that free and open debate about that topic is critical. A prerequisite to such debate is preventing war-hungry, right-wing advocates from employing duplicitous and manipulative claims of "anti-semitism" and "dual loyalty" to stifle such discussions and intimidate opponents of a war-seeking approach to Iran.
UPDATE: In Salon today, Gregory Levey has an excellent article examining the role Israel is playing in the presidential election and the Joe-Lieberman-led effort to smear Obama as "anti-Israel" among Jewish voters. Levey correctly points out that "the vast majority of American Jews don't cast their votes based on considerations for Israel" -- a fact confirmed by a recent poll from the nonpartisan Israel Project -- but some extremely ugly tactics are being hauled out by the Right directed at those who do.
UPDATE II: Whenever I write about this issue, I typically avoid the term "dual loyalty" or "divided loyalty" not because they're inaccurate -- they're not -- but because they have some ugly connotations and ugly history. Here, Klein used the term "divided loyalty," and ultimately, it can hardly be described as inaccurate based on the Right's own advocacy -- i.e., if an American voter is casting votes based on what's best for another country, it's hard to argue that it isn't "dual loyalty." As Klein notes today, "[Jennifer] Rubin's description of the interests of American Jews is an embarrassment that plays into the worst antisemitic stereotypes," in that she explicitly calls for American Jews to vote in a U.S. election based on Israel. What is she advocating if not "dual loyalty" or "divided loyalty"?
I think the broader issue is that there's nothing inherently wrong with "dual loyalty." Countless voting blocs in America possess it to one degree or another -- Irish-Americans, Mexican-Americans, Cuban-Americans, Catholics, Christians, Muslims, naturalized citizens of all sorts and those who identify their heritage with another country. In some sense, "dual loyalty" or even "multiple loyalties" is a perfectly benign aspect of America's heterogeneity, the fact that people are "American" and also other things. The point isn't that there's anything inherently wrong with or unusual about "dual loyalty" in this sense. There isn't.
What's destructive here is the way the "dual loyalty" manifests -- the policy desires it produces. And to the extent it plays a role in policy debates -- as it does in all sorts of debates, and certainly in debates over the Middle East -- it ought to be something that people are free to acknowledge and discuss without being defamed and smeared.
Glenn Greenwald was previously a constitutional law and civil rights litigator in New York. He is the author of the New York Times Bestselling book "How Would a Patriot Act?," a critique of the Bush administration's use of executive power, released in May 2006. His second book, "A Tragic Legacy", examines the Bush legacy.
© Salon.com
37 Comments so far
Show AllMy comment said nothing about the role these people played in the lead up to war- just that trying to identify them as Israeli nationals is inaccurate and driven by an antisemitic agenda to blame Jews, in toto, for what is actually an American, Republican led, agenda. Choosing a few people with Jewish sounding names, and ignoring the vast numbers of others in positions of authority and decision making, is obviously a scapegoating process to try to get the blame and responsibility off of where it belongs- GWB and his ENTIRE set of cronies baby.
Dick Cheney's daughter is a member of Likud?
Nice -no response- to the thread BTW. I guess no amount of gutter language is too much for you when it comes to the Jewish people, and I know why; you're a white supremacist. Just come clean- your white "overcoat" is.
Bamabanjo: You have been drinking the Koolaid from AIPAC or are a clever spinmeister working for them. The names of many of the men (Scratch Mukasy and Secretary of Homeland Security) listed by MiMiCcS as having US/Israeli dual citizenship were deeply involved in the planning and creation of the lies that led to the attack against Iraq. Paul Wolfowitz recruited many of them and they worked in the Office of Special Plans under Wolfowitz and William Luti. This group operated out of the Department of Defense and sent information directly to the White House and Cheney's office without it being checked for accuracy by the Intelligence Agencies. Karen Kwiatkowski was an US Army Lt. Col. assigned to that office and saw the groups of Israeli Generals visiting and found that they had never been signed in. Check out the name Abram Shulsky who used the philosophy of "noble lies" to further a noble cause.
(the attack against Iraq)Your attempt to disassociate Israel from the US attack against Iraq is quite like Donald Rumsfeld trying to deny that top level people in our Government knew nothing about what was going on at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib and Bagram. A number of those men are no longer in Government, but they are still encouraging an attack against Iran and trying to justify their involvement in the fiasco in Iraq. A number of them are still there at the DOD with a new office name called the Iranian Directorate and last time I knew, Dick Cheney's daughter worked there. And yes, they are still creating the lies that will be used to justify attacking Iran. Likudnik, how will you spin any attack against Iran??
In response to this thread- I can guarantee you that indeed, a lot of what tries to pass here at CD as anti-oppression in Israel of Palestinians is first of all anti-Zionism (denying to the Jews what many similarly oppressed peoples have struggled for, national liberation) or outright anti-Semitism (using ragged, hate filled stereotypes and conspiracy theories, attempting to justify the unjustifiable- terrorism and attacks on Jews because they're Jews, or Israeli citizens because they're Israelis).
Gus- is your argument that Jews deserve to be scapegoated? They shouldn't be "surprised" when all Jews are blamed for the actions of a few? Let me ask then, are you "surprised" that Arabs are scapegoated for terrorism?
Willybill- opposition to Zionism isn't necessarily anti-Semitic; in the case of Neturai Karta and their ilk they would seem to have strongly felt religious differences with Zionists. This is different than non-Jews who would try to argue that the only "good" Jews are those that reject Zionism. That is anti-Semitism.
Siouxrose- your rose colored analogy clearly ignores the actual dangers for those that live in Israel, and their government that must handle real threats to security. I suppose the construction company just should have had some thicker mud for the Palestinian bulldozer driver to drive through?
Where do you live? Do you leave your door open, or are you a glass house inhabitant who throws bricks at other people's houses?
Yknot- are you equally critical of those who take positions for other countries when "America's" (capital, social) interests would differ? I don't buy, however, that America's and Israel's are necessarily different. To the leftists on this thread, does this statement line up with your oft-noted support for internationalism?
American peasant- you so eloquently (not!) express the basis for claiming that the article's points are not always accurate. Your statements that Zionist Jews are anti-American, or backstabbers, undoubtedly are anti-Semitic because they are just current interpretations of older claims that Jews are untrustworthy, or not loyal to their country.
Further, as I've noted before, Israel isn't a theocracy. Saudi, Iran, Hezbollah, Taliban Afghanistan, Hamas- those are theocracies.
Or Merek- trotting out the old -control the media- canard, are we?
Thankfully, some on this thread are aware of these RIGHT WING trolls, and their hate filled rhetoric, such as the dual citizen bs.
Then hollowpoint takes it back to the gutter with 911 nonsense.
As veracity notes, certainly you can oppose Israel's policies. But I would conclude by saying that if you try to support your argument with the addition and use of obvious anti-Semitic tropes like Jews control the government, banks, media/ or their religion demands blood or somesuch/ or link to obvious a-holes like David Duke/ or trot out other white supremacist drivel; then you are an anti-Semite.
If you are an American, then IMHO take full responsibility for our own screw-ups, and don't accept Republican efforts to try to pawn them off on our erstwhile ally Israel. Israel clearly didn't have as much influence as Republicans would like to hide behind in BUSH's decision to go to war:
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/29/3488/
In this way it is a little like obscenity- I know it when I see it, and I hope other "progressives" can call it as they see it as well, and dissociate themselves from their self-selected allies on the extreme right. Or at least those in the center can see past both groups and move America and its policies forward.
This shrieking "anti-Semite" at every critic of Israel is reducing the term to a joke. Before the 1960s every critic of US policy was denounced "Communist", "anti-American", etc., so these terms became popular amongst young people who proclaimed themselves as such so as to emphasize their criticism of that policy. Remember how Jerry Rubin used them to make the UnAmerican Activities committee into a joke. Wont be long before someone like Finkelstein laughs out his proclamation of being anti-Semetic and the whole world will laugh along with him too.
Patriotic Chickenpluckin' American Christians must continue to Evangelize the Jews with unrelenting veracity until every Jew has confessed their life to JESUS.
The treacherous Atheists who cross out the words, "In God We Trust" on the back of currency with a Sharpie pen shall Burn in the Fires of Hell!
… because the "double standard" described in detail in the article, and in Jacka$$ stream Media everywhere:
Being at odds with ideology of secular Zionists, and the criminal gov't of Israel.
… has nothing to do with antisemitism, which is the often counter "argument" to anything negative about Israel.
Being against the pro-Iraeli policies of our gov't, which are damaging and contrary to American values and foreign relations, is NOT being anti-Jewish.
Namaste « Presence »
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world » — Gandhi
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed » — Gandhi
« We adopt the means of nonviolence because our end is a community at peace with itself » — ML King
canuckchuck July 3rd, 2008 12:16 pm
Just becasue I hate the Nazi's doesn't make me "anti-german"…
veracity July 3rd, 2008 1:17 pm
Just because I vomit upon the Zionist's ideology doesn't make me "anti-Jew"…
I don't even know what you guys are talking about.
Just because I vomit upon the Zionist's ideology doesn't make me "anti-Jew"…
Just becasue I hate the Nazi's doesn't make me "anti-german"...
MiMiCcS July 2nd, 2008 7:27 pm
"like we all support America, if not our governments policies."
Thank God...got it in one!
greenerthanthou July 3rd, 2008 11:27 am
I had forgotten the third building. You are darn sure right about it falling down the memory hole.
Pax
Popular Mechanics said it.
I believe it.
And that settles it!
;)
http://www.wtc7.net/
Actually, Hollow Point, 3 skyscrapers fell on 9-11, all at the speed of gravity. Only 2 were hit by planes. Those were incredibly high 110 story buildings, exploding into clouds of concrete dust, throwing great beams of steel and human body parts out into the air, before collapsing at free fall speed.
The third was a 47 story building. It fell in perfect demolition style later in the day. There is still no official story about why it fell. It doesn't matter. It fell down the memory hole 6 years ago.
Wow, Siouxrose, great story.
But then, we in fortress America are screwed! Cowering behind our mammoth war machine and repressive government, peering out in fear at the other 5 1/2 billion humans on this planet, striking out with death and destruction around the planet - we've got some bad karma going on!
Webwalk
if you tell a lie over and over people start to think it must be true.
Since 911 and even before, but after those buildings fell down ( folks that is all that happened no cities flattened and left burning), just two office buildings, America has been lock step. Who ever cooked up 911 is brilliant the whole country went after one man OBL to a point the rest of the country was taken over without a single shot being fired. America as we know it and the world it attacks in the future is screwed.
As for why they keep lying well I heard links to Israel and 911 on several web sites but who knows. Right know I suggest what I did I moved the hell out of America forever. If you can't then make all options open to provide the basic needs of life available for you and your family. It isn't going to get better in america no matter who they appoint to so called run your country.
FredWol wrote in response to MiMiCcSs:
"What I thought was missing and what I'd like more information about is the proof that these people are, in fact, also citizens of Israel."
Excellent point! Especially since MiMiCcSs is NOT telling the truth.
The persons named by MiMiCcSs are NOT "dual citizens".
This is a lie that is circulated again and again, by disingenuous posters here at CD, and i have replied to several of the posts with the truth, and none of the liars have ever attempted to refute the truth. But then they return later to repeat their lies.
The simple truth is, the state of Israel WILL GRANT Israeli citizenship to any Jew who MOVES TO ISRAEL.
Based on this, these disingenuous posters make lists of Jews in the US government, and say "They are all dual citizens of Israel!" It is NOT true. None of the persons listed is a "dual citizen".
It is true that if any Jew MOVES to Israel, they have the right at that time to become Israeli citizens. THIS DOES NOT MAKE THEM ISRAELI CITIZENS NOW.
So then the question becomes, why do these liars keep repeating their lies? What is their motive?
Breaking the Jewish media cartel will go a long way towards fixing many of the problems with our democracy. There is no doubt that the Jews control our media; just consider the following list of TV executives:
Roger Ailes is president of Fox News;Jonathan Klein is president of CNN/U.S.;Les Moonves is president of CBS;Neil Shapiro is president of NBC News;David Westin is president of ABC News.
These men are all Jewish. As the destruction of Iran would be greatly to the benefit of Israel, is it any wonder that the war drums are beating so loudly in spite of heavy opposition from the overwhelming majority of Americans?
Without coordinated, deliberate protection from all the major news channels, would the Bush cabal have dared to commit so many impeachable crimes, from lying to Congress, to warrantless wiretapping, to torture? An honest press should have been baying after Bush's blood long ago, but all we hear is silence, dead silence.
If we don't break the Jewish media cartel and all that intentional silence, our democracy will die.
Dual loyalty indeed! There is no such thing. If somebody wants to excuse (or champion)the treachery of a back-stabbing, torturing, murdering pseudo theocracy like Israel, whether as hireling or agent, why then he/she ought properly to have the decency to register as such. As for Americans bending over because some foreign agent smears him as
"anti-Semitic", hoping to shut Americans up about discussing anti-American activities by Zionist Jews...well, this the sting will soon disappear from that smear...just hide and watch.
I'm interested in finding out more about the dual-nationals in MiMiCcS's post, which he links to http://www.viewzone.com/dualcitizen.html. What I thought was missing and what I'd like more information about is the proof that these people are, in fact, also citizens of Israel. If it's true, I think it's something well worth publicizing more, but I think each of these names need to have some facts that shows how it is known that they are citizens of Israel, and that seemed to be missing from the viewzone web site.
Mimicc why is it that election after election the foreign policy of Israel does not change? If anything its influence over america ( the sheep) is getting stronger?
.
The United States, FIRST, LAST, and ALWAYS !!!!!!!!!
As the New Testament states, "you cannot serve two masters, and be loyal to one"........
.
Divided or dual loyalties? No! It's the attitude of "Israel First" which has created so many terrible foreign policy problems for the United States and its people.
How can anyone not be accused of "antisemitism" if the Israelis claim that israel is a Jewish state and any criticism of Israel is tagged "antisemitic". The cakewalk into Iraq was part and parcel of Bibi Nethanyahu's group that included mostly either dual citizens or Americans who believed and many still believe given the Rubin commentary that US policies in the middle East must be cleared and approved by Israel.
The present so called confrontational approach in discussions that resulted from the Joe Klein comments are indicative of the reality that one must admit is due to the pressures and sometime blackmail methods used many american Jews with either dual loyalties or preferring one loyalty over another.
Loyalty means a commitment to one and only one partner, community, state, principle, Anyone not just loyal to a unity cannot be but disloyal to both or more. Is that not basically what America did to the Japanese during WWII?
And if one has the right or feels obligated to sharing their loyalty what is to stop everyone from doing it?
And if it comes to that what would it serve to have one national government, one flag, one national anthem, one national policy for 300 million Americans rather than just a minority that demands special priviliges because of race and/or religion? The USA to prosper and fulfill its destiny cannot and must not attempt to coddle to any small group that is part and parcel of its social mix. To do otherwise can only result in its eventual disintegration.
Its getting to a point where a non-dual loyalty American citizen who voices his/her opposition to nuking Iran is automatically charged with being "antisemitic". And if this was not comical it certainly is tragic.
Extend best wishes on the upcoming 4th to all one loyalty Americans.
Lets not confuse American Jews who make up 2% of the vote, with the monied Jewish neocon elite. Not all Americans are neocons, not all American Jews support the rightwing Israeli policies. In fact, the majority do not. They support Israel, not necessarily it's policies, like we all support America, if not our governments policies.
Now, as for dual citizenship. I have nothing against dual nationals, but if you are working in the US government, you must be 100% loyal to America, and holding citizenship in another country can not be permitted. In fact, Americans will lose their citizenship if they take a policy level position in the government of another nation.
Lets take a look at those dual nationals in government.
http://www.viewzone.com/dualcitizen.html
"Michael Mukasey
Recently appointed as US Attorney General. Mukasey also was the judge in the litigation between developer Larry Silverstein and several insurance companies arising from the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11/2001.
Michael Chertoff
Former Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, at the Justice Department; now head of Homeland Security.
Richard Perle
One of Bush's foreign policy advisors, he is the chairman of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board. A very likely Israeli government agent, Perle was expelled from Senator Henry Jackson's office in the 1970's after the National Security Agency (NSA) caught him passing Highly-Classified (National Security) documents to the Israeli Embassy. He later worked for the Israeli weapons firm, Soltam. Perle came from one the above mentioned pro-Israel thinktanks, the AEI. Perle is one of the leading pro-Israeli fanatics leading this Iraq war mongering within the administration and now in the media.
In fact, Richard Pearle led a study group for Israels Prime Minister Netanyahu in 1996, with assistance from Douglas Feith, that recommended in the report "Clean Break" removal of Saddam in Iraq (done), an armed incursion into Lebaonon (done), strikes against Syria (done) and Iran (pending). Mission almost accomplished.
Paul Wolfowitz
Paul Wolfowitz has been rewarded with a new position in the Bush administration which will allow him to oversee classified intelligence and inform policies on WMD issues.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has offered Wolfowitz, a prime architect of the Iraq War, a position as chairman of the International Security Advisory Board, a prestigious State Department panel, according to two department sources who declined to be identified discussing personnel matters. The 18-member panel, which has access to highly classified intelligence, advises Rice on disarmament, nuclear proliferation, WMD issues and other matters. "We think he is well suited and will do an excellent job," said one senior official.
Former Deputy Defense Secretary, and member of Perle's Defense Policy Board, in the Pentagon. Wolfowitz is a close associate of Perle, and reportedly has close ties to the Israeli military. His sister lives in Israel. Wolfowitz came from the above mentioned Jewish thinktank, JINSA. Wolfowitz was the number two leader within the administration behind this Iraq war mongering. He later was appointed head of the World Bank but resigned under pressure from World Bank members over a scandal involving his misuse of power.
Lawrence (Larry) Franklin
The former Defense Intelligence Agency analyst with expertise in Iranian policy issues who worked in the office of Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith and reported directly to Feith's deputy, William Luti, was sentenced January 20, 2006, "to more than 12 years in prison for giving classified information to an Israeli diplomat" and members of the pro-Israel lobbying group American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC).
Franklin will "remain free while the government continues with the wider case" and his "prison time could be sharply reduced in return for his help in prosecuting" former AIPAC members Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissman, [who] are scheduled to go on trial in April [2006]. Franklin admitted that he met periodically with Rosen and Weissman between 2002 and 2004 and discussed classified information, including information about potential attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq. Rosen and Weissman would later share what they learned with reporters and Israeli officials." (source: sourcewatch.com).
Douglas Feith
Under Secretary of Defense and Policy Advisor at the Pentagon. He is a close associate of Perle and served as his Special Counsel. Like Perle and the others, Feith is a pro-Israel extremist, who has advocated anti-Arab policies in the past. He is closely associated with the extremist group, the Zionist Organization of America, which even attacks Jews that don't agree with its extremist views. Feith frequently speaks at ZOA conferences. Feith runs a small law firm, Feith and Zell, which only has one International office, in Israel. The majority of their legal work is representing Israeli interests. His firm's own website stated, prior to his appointment, that Feith "represents Israeli Armaments Manufacturer." Feith basically represents the Israeli War Machine. Feith also came from the Jewish thinktank JINSA. Feith, like Perle and Wolfowitz, are campaigning hard for this Israeli proxy war against Iraq.
Feith was investigated by the FBI under suspicion of leaking classified information to Israel, being that he was Larry Franklin's boss when Franklin leaked those documents to Rosen and Weissman of AIPAC. For that he was forced to leave the National Security Council. Feith was also investigated by the Senate Intelligence Committee for sexing up 'intelligence' that was used to justify invading Iraq.
Edward Luttwak
Member of the National Security Study Group of the Department of Defence at the Pentagon. Luttwak is reportedly an Israeli citizen and has taught in Israel. He frequently writes for Israeli and pro-Israeli newspapers and journals. Luttwak is an Israeli extremist whose main theme in many of his articles is the necessity of the U.S. waging war against Iraq and Iran.
Henry Kissinger
One of many Pentagon Advisors, Kissinger sits on the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board under Perle. For detailed information about Kissinger's evil past, read Seymour Hersch's book (Price of Power: Kissinger in the Nixon White House). Kissinger likely had a part in the Watergate crimes, Southeast Asia mass murders (Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos), Installing Chilean mass murdering dictator Pinochet, Operation Condor's mass killings in South America, and more recently served as Serbia's Ex-Dictator Slobodan Milosevic's Advisor. He consistently advocated going to war against Iraq. Kissinger is the Ariel Sharon of the U.S. Unfortunately, President Bush nominated Kissinger as chairman of the September 11 investigating commission. It's like picking a bank robber to investigate a fraud scandal. He later declined this job under enormous protests.
Dov Zakheim
Dov Zakheim is an ordained rabbi and reportedly holds Israeli citizenship. Zakheim attended Jew's College in London and became an ordained Orthodox Jewish Rabbi in 1973. He was adjunct professor at New York's Jewish Yeshiva University. Zakheim is close to the Israeli lobby.
Dov Zakheim is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations and in 2000 a co-author of the Project for the New American Century's position paper, Rebuilding America's Defenses, advocating the necessity for a Pearl-Harbor-like incident to mobilize the country into war with its enemies, mostly Middle Eastern Muslim nations.
He was appointed by Bush as Pentagon Comptroller from May 4, 2001 to March 10, 2004. At that time he was unable to explain the disappearance of $1 trillion dollars. Actually, nearly three years earlier, Donald Rumsfeld announced on September 10, 2001 that an audit discovered $2.3 trillion was also missing from the Pentagon books. That story, as mentioned, was buried under 9-11's rubble. The two sums disappeared on Zakheim's watch. We can only guess where that cash went.
Despite these suspicions, on May 6, 2004, Zakheim took a lucrative position at Booz Allen Hamilton, one of the most prestigious strategy consulting firms in the world. One of its clients then was Blessed Relief, a charity said to be a front for Osama bin Laden. Booz, Allen & Hamilton then also worked closely with DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is the research arm of the Department of Defense.
Judicial Inc's bio of Dov tells us Zakheim is a dual Israeli/American citizen and has been tracking the halls of US government for 25 years, casting defense policy and influence on Presidents Reagan, Clinton, Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. Judicial Inc points out that most of Israel's armaments were gotten thanks to him. Squads of US F-16 and F-15 were classified military surplus and sold to Israel at a fraction of their value.
Kenneth Adelman
One of many Pentagon Advisors, Adelman also sits on the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board under Perle, and is another extremist pro-Israel advisor, who supported going to war against Iraq. Adelman frequently is a guest on Fox News, and often expresses extremist and often ridiculus anti-Arab and anti-Muslim views. Through his racism or ignorance, he actually called Arabs "anti-Semitic" on Fox News (11/28/2001), when he could have looked it up in the dictionary to find out that Arabs by definition are Semites.
I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby
Vice President Dick Cheney's ex-Chief of Staff. As chief pro-Israel Jewish advisor to Cheney, it helps explains why Cheney is so gun-ho to invade Iran. Libby is longtime associate of Wolfowitz. Libby was also a lawyer for convicted felon and Israeli spy Marc Rich, whom Clinton pardoned, in his last days as president. Libby was recently found guilty of lying to Federal investigators in the Valerie Plame affair, in which Plame, a covert CIA agent, was exposed for political revenge by the Bush administration following her husband's revelations about the lies leading to the Iraq War.
Robert Satloff
U.S. National Security Council Advisor, Satloff was the executive director of the Israeli lobby's "think tank," Washington Institute for Near East Policy. Many of the Israeli lobby's "experts" come from this front group, like Martin Indyk.
Elliott Abrams
National Security Council Advisor. He previously worked at Washington-based "Think Tank" Ethics and Public Policy Center. During the Reagan Adminstration, Abrams was the Assistant Secretary of State, handling, for the most part, Latin American affairs. He played an important role in the Iran-Contra Scandal, which involved illegally selling U.S. weapons to Iran to fight Iraq, and illegally funding the contra rebels fighting to overthrow Nicaragua's Sandinista government. He also actively deceived three congressional committees about his involvement and thereby faced felony charges based on his testimony. Abrams pled guilty in 1991 to two misdemeanors and was sentenced to a year's probation and 100 hours of community service. A year later, former President Bush (Senior) granted Abrams a full pardon. He was one of the more hawkish pro-Israel Jews in the Reagan Administration's State Department.
Marc Grossman
Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs. He was Director General of the Foreign Service and Director of Human Resources at the Department of State. Grossman is one of many of the pro-Israel Jewish officials from the Clinton Administration that Bush has promoted to higher posts.
Richard Haass
Director of Policy Planning at the State Department and Ambassador at large. He is also Director of National Security Programs and Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR). He was one of the more hawkish pro-Israel Jews in the first Bush (Sr) Administration who sat on the National Security Council, and who consistently advocated going to war against Iraq. Haass is also a member of the Defense Department's National Security Study Group, at the Pentagon.
Robert Zoellick
U.S. Trade Representative, a cabinet-level position. He is also one of the more hawkish pro-Israel Jews in the Bush (Jr) Administration who advocated invading Iraq and occupying a portion of the country in order to set up a Vichy-style puppet government. He consistently advocates going to war against Iran.
Ari Fleischer
Ex- White House Spokesman for the Bush (Jr) Administration. Prominent in the Jewish community, some reports state that he holds Israeli citizenship. Fleischer is closely connected to the extremist Jewish group called the Chabad Lubavitch Hasidics, who follow the Qabala, and hold very extremist and insulting views of non-Jews. Fleischer was the co-president of Chabad's Capitol Jewish Forum. He received the Young Leadership Award from the American Friends of Lubavitch in October, 2001.
James Schlesinger
One of many Pentagon Advisors, Schlesinger also sits on the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board under Perle and is another extremist pro-Israel advisor, who supported going to war against Iraq. Schlesinger is also a commissioner of the Defense Department's National Security Study Group, at the Pentagon.
David Frum
White House speechwriter behind the "Axis of Evil" label. He lumped together all the lies and accusations against Iraq for Bush to justify the war.
Joshua Bolten
White House Deputy Chief of Staff, Bolten was previously a banker, former legislative aide, and prominent in the Jewish community.
John Bolton
Former UN Representative and Under-Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security. Bolton is also a Senior Advisor to President Bush. Prior to this position, Bolton was Senior Vice President of the above mentioned pro-Israel thinktank, AEI. He recently (October 2002) accused Syria of having a nuclear program, so that they can attack Syria after Iraq. He must have forgotten that Israel has 400 nuclear warheads, some of which are thermonuclear weapons (according to a recent U.S. Air Force report).
David Wurmser
Special Assistant to John Bolton (above), the under-secretary for arms control and international security. Wurmser also worked at the AEI with Perle and Bolton. His wife, Meyrav Wurmser, along with Colonel Yigal Carmon, formerly of Israeli military intelligence, co-founded the Middle East Media Research Institute (Memri),a Washington-based Israeli outfit which distributes articles translated from Arabic newspapers portraying Arabs in a bad light.
Eliot Cohen
Member of the Pentagon's Defense Policy Board under Perle and is another extremist pro-Israel advisor. Like Adelman, he often expresses extremist and often ridiculus anti-Arab and anti-Muslim views. More recently, he wrote an opinion article in the Wall Street Journal openly admitting his rascist hatred of Islam claiming that Islam should be the enemy, not terrorism.
Mel Sembler
President of the Export-Import Bank of the United States. A Prominent Jewish Republican and Former National Finance Chairman of the Republican National Committee. The Export-Import Bank facilitates trade relationships between U.S. businesses and foreign countries, specifically those with financial problems. "
No wonder our polices resemble that of Israel.
Now Joe Lieberman predicted a terror attack in 2009, Obamas first year. Says every President gets a terror attack his first year since AQ will test him. He mentioned Clinton-1993 and Bush-2001 Who will benefit from such an attack? Who is in charge of Homeland Security?. See a conflict?
The National Jewish Population Survey reports there are approximately 2.9 million registered Jewish-American voters (out of a total of 142 million total registered voters.)
Exit polls in '04 by The American Jewish Committee Annual Survey of American Jewish Opinion: 69% for Kerry.
And look how that turned out.
Exit polls in '00 by the same org: 75% Gore.
And look how that turned out.
There is simply no proof whatsoever that the majority of Jewish-Americans would ever support a GOPathological candidate.
GUS: I agree with your analysis.
This is a true anecdote. Years ago when I lived in San Juan there was a woman who kept writing to The San Juan Star (not the best choice of newspapers for her plea) to the people who had continually robbed her home that there was nothing left. She lived behind a HIGH barbed wire fence.
In contrast, I knew a very spiritually aware woman, mother of 5, who left her front door open because invariably one of her children would forget his/her keys. One day some thieves drove up and instead of parking in the driveway, in their mad rush they parked ON the lawn and proceeded to load the car up with whatever electronic booty they could get their hands on. And guess what? The porous ground held their tires and they could NOT get away with the booty.
The moral of this story reflects on Israel. Anyone or nation that lives BY fear and seeks to erect higher and higher walls and fences makes itself a neon attraction for those that would harm it. In contrast, those that live in peace and trust tend to attract far more benign conditions.
We can barely wrap our minds around the incalculable waste that might have not been plundered on "defense" and an obscene array of weaponry, but rather gone to building communities and SHARING resources in ways that make people feel they have a chance at a decent life. The claim of warriors to take it all at others' expense is an ethos MOTHER NATURE is now deconstructing, place by place.
Willybill
Your damn right they are..........sadly.
Are Orthodox Jews who disagree with the Zionist philosophy labeled Anti-Semitic?
Zionists are arrogant and believe manipulation of the US into wars on behalf of Israel are clever and to be achieved by any means available. They are too arrogant to understand the backlash of these efforts once the US economy and military collapse, and that scapegoats will be sought. The word "scapegoats" should send a chill down the spine of Jews everywhere, because they have been singled out as scapegoats time and time again in world history.
The sad part is that the Jewish community in the US has been an agent of progressive change in our country, and that the actions of a few (Likudniks) will adversely affect the many. The manipulation and threats of AIPAC and like-minded organizations is criminal in the harm that they cause, and those organizations should realize that people will have a long memory of the period spanning the USS Liberty incident in 1967 and our collapse in the coming 5 year period. It's not pleasant, but it is absolutely true.
It's The Right's Game-Playing With 'Dual Citizenship' that has pushed America into self destruction.
it has often seemed to me that the "Israel" whose "interests" AIPAC and the neocons attempt to promote is just as "fictive" (to use Michael Moore's term) as the glorious Maliki government is in entering into any "agreement" ...
How we stop them, how we reduce their influence is another matter ...
I am doubtful that they are actually in possession of Kryptonite.
Americans were warned of such nonsense over 2 centuries ago by the man who fathered their nation:
"So likewise, a passionate attachment of one nation for another produces a variety of evils. Sympathy for the favorite nation, facilitating the illusion of an imaginary common interest in cases where no real common interest exists, and infusing into one the enmities of the other, betrays the former into a participation in the quarrels and wars of the latter without adequate inducement or justification. It leads also to concessions to the favorite nation of privileges denied to others which is apt doubly to injure the nation making the concessions; by unnecessarily parting with what ought to have been retained, and by exciting jealousy, ill-will, and a disposition to retaliate, in the parties from whom equal privileges are withheld. And it gives to ambitious, corrupted, or deluded citizens (who devote themselves to the favorite nation), facility to betray or sacrifice the interests of their own country, without odium, sometimes even with popularity; gilding, with the appearances of a virtuous sense of obligation, a commendable deference for public opinion, or a laudable zeal for public good, the base or foolish compliances of ambition, corruption, or infatuation."
~ George Washington, Farewell Address, 1796
Tend your roses and their blooms will be glorious
Am I the only one who got a headache just reading this article? Can't we just speak the truth without the childish name calling?
I'm bored with these hissy-fits among the chattering classes ... sticks and stones will break my bones but names will never hurt me ... Call the neo-con "traitors" and "dual-loyalists" and they volley back aspersions of "antisemitism" ... with gasps, hisses, and "how-dare-you!"s thrown in for good measure.
I suppose I should care... but it's OLD and STALE and seems like more calculated ritualized outrage ...
Rather confusing bandying around of the "anti-Semite" slur, but then that's been going on for almost a century in relation to the Zionist project. When at the height of WWI, the British government issued a declaration supporting creation of a Jewish colonial state in Palestine, Edwin Montagu, the only Jewish member of the British Cabinet called the declaration "anti-Semitic". His reasoning ran as follows:
...I assume that it means that Mahommedans and Christians are to make way for the Jews and that the Jews should be put in all positions of preference and should be peculiarly associated with Palestine in the same way that England is with the English or France with the French, that Turks and other Mahommedans in Palestine will be regarded as foreigners, just in the same way as Jews will hereafter be treated as foreigners in every country but Palestine. Perhaps also citizenship must be granted only as a result of a religious test.
Only one question. What is a man who is about to be indicted in Israel for taking bribes doing in the White House and confidently predicting an attack on Iran? If this kind of slime is the sort we do business with, we are in big trouble indeed.