Strain in U.S.-Israel Ties Spurs Anxiety About ‘Dual Loyalty’

[Purveyor]

Dual loyalty is an old and nefarious accusation. It has dogged Jews for centuries in any land where they settled and began to feel comfortable — the allegation that their allegiance is to their tribe first and not to their nation.

America has been a haven precisely because the moments when this fear has swelled up have been few and far between. Even the existence of Israel, a country with its own set of national interests and its own wars and ways of dealing with them, has not created much of an issue for those American Jews who see themselves as both Zionists and patriots.

So totally aligned have the United States and Israeli governments been for most of the past 20 years that American Jews have not been forced to seriously consider that these two identities could be in conflict.

But this might be changing.

Since a vice presidential trip to Israel in early March to restart peace talks was spoiled by the unexpected announcement that new housing units were to be built in East Jerusalem, the tension between the two countries has been ratcheting up. The last time anyone can remember it getting this heated was in the early 1990s, during the presidency of George H.W. Bush, when loan guarantees to Israel were made contingent on a settlement freeze.

What most defines this current friction, according to observers, is an explicit link made by President Obama and other high officials, like U.S. Army general David Petraeus, that earlier administrations were reluctant to make: The continuation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict undermines American national interests and creates problems for America’s expanded presence in the Middle East. A Tense Moment: Israeli soldiers during the Suez crisis in 1956, the first time that American Jews found themselves citi- zens of a country that opposed Israel’s policies.

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[Loudmxr]

1. Its easy. It is a matter of basic values.

Let me preface this by saying I am an old school Zionist like Theodor Herzl. That would be a nice country to live in. nuff said.

I am an American. I was born here. I have USA citizenship and I am a USA national. I value that.

Israel has no nationality. There is no such thing as an Israeli "national". If you are born there you are a citizen but not a national. Nationality is separate and distinct and there are lots of nationalities recognized. That is a seed of exclusion and discrimination. Both beneficial and bad.

So if you treasure American values you, like me, think this is not good. In fact it conflicts with the stated purpose of the Israeli constitution. Yet they have passed laws institutionalizing discrimination. Privileges for some and crap for others.

American values are superior and deserve our loyalty. See its that easy.