According to a recent Anti-Defamation League poll, one out of three Americans thinks that Jews in this country put Israel’s interests ahead of America’s. With the upcoming trial of two ex-staffers of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) accused of leaking classified information to Israeli diplomats, and the anti-Jewish Harvard/University of Chicago report* entitled "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy", the question of dual loyalty is, once again, raising it's ugly head. As crazy as it may sound, the mere act of caring about Israel and exercising our rights as American citizens to petition members of Congress – in order to express our views, could be seriously hampered if we do not publicly defend this inalienable right.
At the core of the “American Jewish loyalty” argument lies the following: 1) The case of Jonathon Pollard 2) The quality of American democracy in America 3) attempts to deligitimize American Jews by questioning their loyalty.
In the case of Jonathon Pollard, which is extremely complex, we have a classic case of bad decisions on the part of both Pollard and the Israeli government. For years, the Pollard incident created a glass ceiling for American Jews seeking to partake in the highest levels of our government – a setback that I think most will agree we have just begun to recover. The March 28th, 2006 death of Casper Weinberger dovetails nicely with the issue of American Jewish loyalty because of his intervention in the Pollard case. Weinberger sent a top-secret memo to the Pollard trial judge - a memo that is suspected to blame Pollard for “outing” eleven US spies who were killed in Russia, and was the reason why the US government reneged on Pollard’s plea bargain agreement. It was later learned that Richard Ames, a CIA agent, was the one responsible for the deaths in Russia. The Pollard case, to this day, remains the central argument to those who wish to question American Jewish loyalty – even though the damages to US security was non-existent when compared to just about anyone charged with a similar violation. At the end of the day, the entire Pollard affair - in hindsight - might have been avoided had the American Jewish lobby been more effective during that period. Ironically, former AIPAC officials have been indicted for openly gathering intelligence offered up by US officials. Damned if you do and damned if you don't.
As much as I disagree with just about everything written by Harvard Professor Walt and U. of Chicago Professor Mearsheimer in their paper "The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy", I will defend their right to exercise their freedom of speech - but question their willingness to allow other US citizens (and groups of US citizens) the same right. Given their flawed analysis, one gets the impression that the Israeli lobby is illegally/covertly imposing its agenda upon a US population that is unaware and unsupportive of their efforts. To the contrary, over 60% of US citizens approve of US support for Israel, which is a higher percentage than put President Bush into office in 2000. The American Israeli Political Action Committee conducts its mission in full compliance with all US laws and regulations covering such lobbying ventures. Professor's Walt and Mearsheimer's statements that recent news stories surrounding AIPAC make their point regarding "treasonous activity" on the part of AIPAC appears to be premature, wishful thinking and grasping at straws.
US foreign policy has often been influenced by special interest groups, be they nationalistically driven (Greeks, Irish) or economically driven (agricultural, manufacturing, NAFTA). If one was to concede the point that US aid to Israel may be disproportionate to overall US aid, it is undisputable that the US gets more than it's money's worth in a politically reliable ally, and a superbly equipped and manned forward base of operation for both political and military activities. But, it is not a point to be conceded so quickly. The cost of US troops in South Korea, Japan and in Western Europe, while not redlined as foreign aid - far exceeds any amount of aid received by Israel from the USA - and many could debate as to whether those assets are well spent.
Attempts to "deligitimize" American Jewish supporters of Israel often reach for hypothetical scenarios to prove their point; what would American Jews do if the USA were to abandon Israel? Where would their loyalty lie? The best answer is to say that because of Israel's existence, American Jews are here by choice. We aren't fleeing political or religious persecution (except in the Muslim world) anymore. We also aren't known to blowup subways, blowup buildings, or stab people when our religious or political sensitivities are offended. We work "within the legal system" to make our voice heard, we write "letters to the editor" to influence public opinion, and we exercise our "inalienable rights" as citizens of the United States of America. Do we have a bigger influence on US foreign policy than our numbers would indicate? Maybe, but there is no reason to apologize or be ashamed for being effective at lobbying.
*The fact that Harvard and the University of Chicago have officially distanced themselves from this report after it was already published is too little, too late.
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