Dual Citizen****p -- Loyal to Whom?
by Dan Eden
Someone wrote and asked me, "Why are there Israeli- but not
Mexican-American
Dual Nationals?"
Well, here's my take on this. I'd also like your views and opinions.
Unless we are Native American Indians, all Americans have their origins in
some other country. Both of my parents were from England. They were proud
to
be "British" but they were most proud of achieving their American
citizen****p. Sure, we had pictures of the Queen and nick-nacks with the
Union Jack on them. My mother even celebrated the traditional 4 o'clock
tea
time and was good at making York****re Pudding. In the late 60's my older
brother served in the US Army and did his tour in Viet Nam. When it came
down to "allegiance," we were all patriotic Americans. Period.
The word "allegiance" means that we promise loyalty. It also carries with
it
the expectation that this loyalty will be exclusive and unrestrained. In
the
case of a declared war or real threat or conflict, for example, our
allegiance to America should preclude any other interest, be it another
country or political ideology.
When they took their oath to become American citizens, my parents had to
pledge their "allegiance" exclusively to America and renounce their
allegiance to "any and all foreign governments." That included Great
Britain, one of our strongest allies.
Before Viewzone asked me to research the meaning of "dual citizen****p," I
had never heard of the term. How could someone be a citizen of two
countries
at the same time? But I was just ignorant. Dual nationalities and
citizen****ps are quite common.
From my internet research, I learned that in 1997, a French Canadian with
a
U.S. pass****t ran for mayor of Plattsburgh, N.Y. He argued that the
in***bent spoke French too poorly to be running a city so close to Quebec.
He lost. Also in 1997, a retired top American official for the U.S. EPA
(Environmental Protection Agency) ran for president of Lithuania. He was
inaugurated in February to a burst of fireworks!
In 1996, Dominicans from New York not only could vote in the Dominican
Republic's presidential elections for the first time, they could vote for
a
fellow New Yorker. Multiple nationalities have become so commonplace that
some analysts fear the trend is undermining the notion of nationhood,
particularly in the place with the most diverse citizenry on Earth: the
United States.
Debate over the issue intensified in the late 1990s, when Mexico joined
the
growing list of poor nations that say it's OK for their nationals to be
citizens of the countries to which they have migrated. Under the law that
took effect in 1998 Mexicans abroad -- most of them in the United States
--
will be able to retain Mexican citizen****p even if they seek U.S.
citizen****p. And naturalized Americans of Mexican descent will be able to
reclaim their original citizen****p. The Mexican government stopped short,
for now, of giving expatriates the right to vote.
Security Issues
Since citizen****p carries with it a responsibility to be exclusively loyal
to one country, the whole concept of dual citizen****p and nationality
raises
questions about which of the dual citizen****ps have priority. This is
extremely im****tant when the two countries have opposing interests. It can
be a deadly problem when a dual citizen is in a high position within our
American government.
Can one imagine a Japanese citizen serving in the Pentagon during WWII? Or
how about a citizen of the Soviet Union holding a cabinet position in the
White House during the Cold War?
Today's conflicts are centered in the Middle East. America needs to
balance
foreign policies towards oil producing Arab nations with our goal being
peace and stability in the region. This places a burdon on our government
to
be even-handed in our dealings with the Arab world and Israel. While the
Iraq War was waged on lies about Weapons of Mass Destruction and revenge
for
911, the real reason has emerged as a well designed global plan to improve
the power and leverage of Israel. Added to this policy is yet another
potential blow to American interests and security -- the impending War
with
Iran. This war will be waged for the security of Israel and will be paid
for
by the blood of American soldiers and the hard-earned money of American
citizens whose quality of life is inversely tied to the cost of petrolium.
Recently, in their much lauded paper, The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign
Policy, Harvard professor, Stephen Walt, and University of Chicago
professor, John Mearsheimer, focused attention on the strong Israeli lobby
which has a powerful influence over American foreign policies (see BBC
article). They detail the influence that this lobby has exerted, forming a
series of international policies which can be viewed as in direct
opposition
to the interests and security of the American people. These acts and
policies are more often than not carried out by US government appointees
who
hold powerful positions and who are dual American-Israeli citizens. Since
the policies they sup****t are often exclusively beneficial to Israel,
often
to the detriment of America, it has been argued that their loyalties are
misdirected.
A few classic examples can be cited here.
Jonathan Jay Pollard was an American-Israeli citizen who worked for the US
government. He is well known because he stole more secrets from the U.S.
than has any other spy in American history. During his interrogation
Pollard
said he felt compelled to put the "interests of my state" ahead of his
own.
Although as a U.S. Navy counter-intelligence specialist he had a
top-secret
security clearance, by "my state" he meant the state of Israel.
Literally tens of thousands of Americans holding U.S. pass****ts admit they
feel a primary allegiance to the state of Israel. In many instances, these
Americans vote in Israeli elections, wear Israeli uniforms and fight in
Israeli wars. Many are actively engaged both in the confiscation of
Palestinian lands and in the Israeli political system. Three examples come
to mind:
One is Rabbi Meir Kahane, who founded the militant Jewish Defense League
in
the U.S. in the 1960s, then emigrated to Israel where, eventually, he was
elected to the Knesset. Until he was shot and killed at one of his U.S.
fund-raising rallies in 1990, the Brooklyn-born rabbi shuttled between Tel
Aviv and New York, where he recruited militant American Jews for his
activities in Israel against Palestinians. He claimed to be a "dual
citizen"
of America and Israel.
Another Jewish American, James Mahon from Alexandria, Virginia, re****tedly
was on a secret mission to kill PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat when he was
shot
in 1980 by an unknown assailant. When he was shot, Mahon held an American
M-16 in his hand and a U.S. pass****t in his pocket.
Then there was Alan Harry Goodman, an American Jew who left his home in
Baltimore, Maryland, flew to Israel and served in the Israeli army. Then,
on
April 11, 1982, armed with an Uzi submachine gun, he walked, alone, to
Al-Aqsa, Jerusalem's most holy Islamic shrine, where he opened fire,
killing
two Palestinians and wounding others. Both the U.S. and Israeli
governments
played down the incident, as did the media.
Most recently, US Navy Petty Officer, Ariel J. Weinmann, while serving at
or
near Bahrain, Mexico, and Austria, "with intent or reason to believe it
would be used to the injury of the United States or to the advantage of a
foreign nation (Israel), [attempted] to communicate, deliver or transmit
classified CONFIDENTIAL and SECRET information relating to the national
defense, to a representative, officer, agent or employee of a foreign
government." Weinmann was apprehended on March 26 after being listed as "a
deserter by his command," according to the US Navy. The information he
gathered was supplied to Israel.
The examples of Kahane, Mahonm, Goodman and Weinmann raise the question of
when a U.S. citizen ceases to be, or should cease to be, a U.S. citizen.
U.S. Law at one time clearly stated that an American citizen owed first
allegiance to the United States. A U.S. citizen should not fight in a
foreign army or hold high office in a foreign country without risking
expatriation. What the heck happened?
The 1940 Nationality Act
Section 401 (e) of the 1940 Nationality Act provides that a U.S. citizen,
whether by birth or naturalization, "shall lose his [U.S.] nationality
by...voting in a political election in a foreign state."
This law was tested many times. In 1958, for instance, an American citizen
named Perez voted in a Mexican election. The case went to the Supreme
Court,
where the majority opinion held that Perez must lose his American
nationality. The court said Congress could provide for expatriation as a
reasonable way of preventing embarrassment to the United States in its
foreign relations.
But then something very odd happened.
In 1967 an American Jew, Beys Afroyim received an exemption that set a
precedent exclusively for American Jews. Afroyim, born in Poland in 1895,
emigrated to America in 1912, and became a naturalized U.S. citizen in
1926.
In 1950, aged 55, he emigrated to Israel and became an Israeli citizen. In
1951 Afroyim voted in an Israeli Knesset election and in five political
elections that followed. So, by all standards he lost his American
citizen****p -- right? Wrong.
After living in Israel for a decade, Afroyim wished to return to New York.
In 1960, he asked the U.S. Consulate in Haifa for an American pass****t.
The
Department of State refused the application, invoking section 401 (e) of
the
Nationality Act -- the same ruling that had stripped the American citizen
named Perez of his U.S. citizen****p.
Attorneys acting for Afroyim took his case to a Wa****ngton, DC District
Court, which upheld the law. Then his attorneys appealed to the Court of
Appeals. This court also upheld the law. The attorneys for Afroyim then
moved the case on to the Supreme Court. Here, with Supreme Court Justice
Abe
Fortas, Lyndon Johnson's former attorney and one of the most powerful
Jewish
Americans, casting the swing vote, the court voted five to four in favor
of
Afroyim. The court held that the U.S. government had no right to "rob"
Afroyim of his American citizen****p!
The court, reversing its previous judgment as regards the Mexican
American,
ruled that Afroyim had not shown "intent" to lose citizen****p by voting in
Israeli elections. Huh?
While Wa****ngton claims it has a "good neighbor" policy with Mexico, the
U.S. does not permit Mexicans to hold dual nationality. The US makes them
become either U.S. or Mexican -- you can't be both. But the U.S., in its
special relation****p with Israel, has become very sympathetic to allowing
Israeli-Americans to retain two nationalities and allowing U.S. citizens
not
only to hold public office in Israel, but to hold US government positions
as
well! No other country holds this special exception to our laws of
citizen****p.
So, you might ask, are there any other dual Israel-American citizens who
hold US government positions that could compromise American security? Yes.
Consider the following list that I obtained on the web:
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.
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) do***ents 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.
Paul Wolfowitz
Former Deputy Defense Secretary, and member of Perle's Defense Policy
Board,
in the Pentagon. Wolfowitz is a close associate of Perle, and re****tedly
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.
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.
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 re****ted 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 re****ters and Israeli officials." (source:
sourcewatch.com).
Edward Luttwak
Member of the National Security Study Group of the Department of Defence
at
the Pentagon. Luttwak is re****tedly 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 re****tedly holds Israeli citizen****p.
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
Ye****va
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
sup****ted 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," Wa****ngton 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
Wa****ngton-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 im****tant 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 ****tion 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 re****ts state that he holds Israeli citizen****p.
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 Leader****p 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 sup****ted 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 re****t).
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 Wa****ngton-based Israeli outfit which
distributes articles translated from Arabic newspapers ****traying 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 Ex****t-Im****t Bank of the United States. A Prominent
Jewish
Republican and Former National Finance Chairman of the Republican National
Committee. The Ex****t-Im****t Bank facilitates trade relation****ps between
U.S. businesses and foreign countries, specifically those with financial
problems.
Steve Goldsmith
Senior Advisor to the President, and Bush's Jewish domestic policy
advisor.
He also served as liaison in the White House Office of Faith-Based and
Community Initiatives (White House OFBCI) within the Executive Office of
the
President. He was the former mayor of Indianapolis. He is also friends
with
Israeli Jerusalem Mayor Ehud Olmert and often visits Israel to coach
mayors
on privatization initiatives.
Adam Goldman
White House's Special Liaison to the Jewish Community.
Joseph Gildenhorn
Bush Campaign's Special Liaison to the Jewish Community. He was the DC
finance chairman for the Bush campaign, as well as campaign coordinator,
and
former ambassador to Switzerland.
Christopher Gersten
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Administration for Children and
Families at HHS. Gersten was the former Executive Director of the
Republican
Jewish Coalition, Husband of Labor Secretary.
Mark Weinberger
Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development for Public Affairs.
Samuel Bodman
Deputy Secretary of Commerce. He was the Chairman and CEO of Cabot
Cor****ation in Boston, Massachusetts.
Bonnie Cohen
Under Secretary of State for Management.
Ruth Davis
Director of Foreign Service Institute, who re****ts to the Office of Under
Secretary for Management. This Office is responsible for training all
Department of State staff (including ambassadors).
Daniel Kurtzer
Ambassador to Israel.
Cliff Sobel
Ambassador to the Netherlands.
Stuart Bernstein
Ambassador to Denmark.
Nancy Brinker
Ambassador to Hungary
Frank Lavin
Ambassador to Singa****e.
Ron Weiser
Ambassador to Slovakia.
Mel Sembler
Ambassador to Italy.
Martin Silverstein
Ambassador to Uruguay.
Lincoln Bloomfield
Assistant Secretary of State for Political Military Affairs.
Jay Lefkowitz
Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy
Council.
Ken Melman
White House Political Director.
Brad Blakeman
White House Director of Scheduling.
I don't know about you, but dual citizen****p is fine with me for an
ordinary
citizen. But if you hold an official position that demands that you put
American interests above all else -- if you should look transparent and
fair
to the rest of the world regarding your formation of Middle East foreign
policies, then this is a dangerous trend. Even if there were no
pro-Israeli
agenda, the fact that decision makers have a bias or an allegiance to one
of
the parties involved in the current conflict should have raised red flags
long before now.
If you think we're being unfair here, ask yourself: How you would react to
the Head of Homeland Security if he or she were a dual national with
citizen****p in Iran, Lebanon or Saudi Arabia? Ask yourself why you don't
feel the same about Israeli dual citizen****p. Then you will understand how
powerful the Israeli lobby has been in "adjusting" your acceptance of
their
special status.
Hey, I could be way off on this. Let's hear from you.
UPDATE: December 4, 2007
Newsweek's Michael Isikoff re****ts that Iraq war architect 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.
Comments:
This was a real eye-opener. I began to have my suspicions when Mukasey's
confirmation was approved by swing votes from Schumer and Feingold,
despite
his objectionable views on torture, which Democrats allegedly oppose. You
know, I read that Jews make up only 2% of the American population. Why
don't
we see more Blacks (12.8%), Irish (12%), Italians (8%), Asians (4.3%),
Mexicans (14.4%) or even Arabs (3.8%) in government positions? Why always
from the same group?
H.J. San Diego
I fully sup****t the State of Israel and their right to exist. I do,
however,
see problems when the US is transparently pro-Israel with regards to its
policies and UN vetoes. This created distrust in the rest of the world and
complicates the progress for peace. In the end, it is self-destructive.
M.B.
The State of Israel grants citizen****p to all Jews who have maternal
Jewish
heritage. It's not only the politicians you have cited in your article.
Having dual citizensip or a dual nationality does not automatically mean
that one will favor Israel over America. It is wrong to suggest that.
D. DeG.
Hey "D. DeG"--
I also sup****t Israel but it is not wrong to suggest it when the evidence
sup****ts it. Check the record of sanctions issues by the United Nations
against Israel which are ALWAYS vetoed by America. Check the amount of
foreign aid that goes to Israel every year against the amounts going to
other countries. Check the immigration visas granted to Israel or the
number
of Jews in our prison system vs. other races... Almost any parameter you
check will open your eyes to something called "Sayanims." Google it. Yes,
there's problem. And it needs to be discussed.
BryanAnt
Check this out! The so-called "Americal Al Qaeda," Azzam the American, who
is featured on many al Qaeda tapes and videos is an American-Israeli Jew.
Concerned
What a punch to the gut. How many war mongers are on that list? How many
spies? How many on that list are now clamoring for the U.S. to fight
another
war for Israel, this time against Iran.
Like Mel Sembler and Brad Blakeman, who helped finance the Bush 2000
Florida
recount and is backing the pro-war, let's bomb ALL of Israel's
"existential"
enemies, Freedom's Watch.
Maybe we should change the "Pledge of Allegiance" to reflect this New
World
of Order in D.C.
I pledge allegiance to the Star of David of the Apartheid State of Israel,
and to the Racism for which it stands, one World, under our Talmud, with
liberty and justice only for the Jews.
Greg Bacon>
Ava, MO
You forgot ambassador Feltman(Jeffrey)since 3 years head of mission in
Lebanon,dual citisen****p ,very close to Sharon and now Olmert Bonzai.
Brunella H
To add to the nightmare: U.S. Nuclear Weapons Being "Guarded" by Israel.
Jim Hartley
A note about dual citizen****p I think you should know. Sovereign nations
have the authority to issue citizen****p to whomever they wish and
stipulate
whatever conditions they want. No country can prevent you from holding
citizen****p of another country because it is not in their power. If you
apply for naturalization within the United States, while technically you
are
supposed to swear allegiance, not all countries will recognize your
repudiation. For example, as a Canadian citizen, by being naturalized in
the
US, I am still a citizen of both countries. If my grandmother were German,
I
would be entitled to German citizen****p regardless of whether I have been
there or not. Ireland is another country where you can never repudiate
your
citizen****p.
Now on to Israel. The modern state of Israel was conceived as a Jewish
homeland, and, naturally, grant the right of return to anyone who is
Jewish.
The fact that as a Jew, they are entitled to citizen****p shouldn't be
construed as a threat to national security. In most cases people opt to
take
up dual citizen****p for ease of travel and work. As a citizen of Israel
you
are entitled to be there, whether just visiting relatives or whatever.
That
a number of government officials also hold Israeli citizen****p reflects an
effective strategy to keep their own close. But there is nothing stopping
other countries, say Great Britain, from promoting citizen****p among the
descendants of the English.
The simple fact is, there is nothing the United States can do to prevent
other countries offering citizen****p to whomever they wish.
Nels Erickson
Um... As an American citizen... I'm completely surprised by your anti-
semitism.
Truck Mac
The above dual citizen****p group looks like a rogues gallery of key neocon
warmongers who pushed the US into numerous wars in my lifetime. Many of
them
also appeared on Sebil Edmonds web page when she recently went public with
high crimes she found when working as an FBI translator.
Why does America stand for such duplicity? The Bush/Cheney/neocon wars
alone
have cost each and every faimily in the US over $20,000 and counting, just
in direct dollar costs. And it is beyond counting the damaged done to our
future. Lets not wait til they get their war on Iran!
Impeach Now!
Tim
I am a US-Israeli dual citizen, and I live in Israel. Most of my family is
in the US, and I grew up in the US. Just because someone is a dual
citizen,
doesn't mean that they are acting perniciously or have a conflict of
interest. What you attribute to some sort of conspiracy is in reality most
of the time just sincere convictions people have. Congress and many
Americans in general sup****t Israel because in their (and my) opinion it
is
the right thing to do. They also sincerely believe that is in the US
interest to do so as well. There are strong arguments to be made for that
position, whether you agree with it or not. If you look at some of the
history of it, you will see that it is not a new thing to come up with
Jewish conspiracy theories. There were pograms in Europe over hundreds of
years based on popular paranoia of such things. In reality, the
"conspiracies"were often enough cooked up by other parties who stood to
benefit by deflecting people's paranoia and suspicion onto the Jews. The
most famous do***ented example of this is the "Protocols of the Elders of
Zion", which was forged by the government in Czarist Russia, but has been
used as justification for the murders of countless innocent Jews, and is
still popular in many parts of the world, particularly the Arab Middle
East,
to this day. This is not even to mention the Nazi regime and the
Holocaust.
There are many Jews who have some connection to Israel who also are
"right-wing" when it comes to American foreign policy, at least in the
Middle East. There are actually just as many American Jews who are very
left-leaning in the same area though. Those who are right wing
("neo-cons")
are often accused as in your article of immorally acting based on mixed
loyalty- but this is again not a fair accusation unless you can
substantiate
that they are actually doing something concrete against US interest. It is
more likely that based on their experience and knowledge of the middle
east
(Israel has been on the front line against terrorism and Arab rejectionism
of the West for more than half a century) they have come to the
conclusions
they have. If they do in fact have a connection to Israel, all the more so
if they are knowledgable about Israel's military and strategic position
and
history in the ME, they happen to be a great deal more informed about the
region than your average person.
It's not fair to cast aspersion on people who are likely trying to fulfill
the duties of their positions honestly and sincerely just because you
disagree with their politics, which is what this boils down to. There are
isolated instances (such as Pollard, etc) where people did in fact act
unethically relative to their duties to the US, but that is not the case
in
most of the people mentioned in your article. And anyway, you will find
such
examples for any nationality or creed. Despite the "hype" to the contrary,
Jews are still one of the smallest minorities in the world, and it's scary
when people accuse us of conspiracies and the like, especially given our
collective experience over the course of history.
Yosef D.
Very, very good article. Well-researched, and brings it all together.
A quick challenge for those that say things like "I fully sup****t the
State
of Israel and their right to exist." What precisely is the right to the
land? Their occupation of Palestine is a result of the Balfour
Declaration,
which was (among other things) an agreement between Zionist Jews and
England
to bring the US into the war in exchange for the creation of a "uniquely
Jewish state." Since today's Askenazi Jews are demonstrably not semite (as
any Jewish Dictionary will confirm, along with their own scholar****p) any
pretense of a "biblical right" to the land is fundamentally flawed.
Fueling
the "return to their homeland" craze is mainstream Christianity, which
largely holds to an eschatology that erroneously declares prophetic
significance to the creation of Israel by UN decree in 1948.
Brad Stone
An eye opener that should be more in the mainstream media. Our country is
being lead by idiots like GW that think God has ordained them to protect
Israel due to a fringe interpretation of the Old Testament, and radical
Jewish dual citizens rush in to fill in the ranks of their officers! I
think
I'll move to China!
MD11DRIVER
The word 'anti-semite'does not mean against semites,it really means
against
Jews who are not semites at all.Read the 'Thirteenth Tribe',by Arthur
Koestler. Check out the term in a high quality dictionary. BILL Caucasians
are also classified as a semitic people although the evidence is
obfuscated
for very obvious reasons.
Bill Van Foeken
I just read (a bit late, I know) your article on dual citizen****p and
elected, as well as other high-level government official. I'm glad to let
you know that on the most part, I agree with the points you raise.
I read in the article about "...in 1997, a retired top American official
for
the U.S. EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) ran for president of
Lithuania. He was inaugurated in February to a burst of fireworks!". That
official was/is Valdas Adamkus. While I understand you used him as an
example to make a point, I feel his situation is much different than the
other examples you raise.
Valdas Adamkus was actually born in Lithuania, and immigrated to the
United
States. Before that, he fought the soviets in Lithuania before eventually
finding his home in the US. From the re-establishment of the Republic of
Lithuania, the Lithuanian government, and the people of Lithuania wanted
to
allow ALL persons of Lithuanian descent (ie citizens of the first republic
of Lithuania and their families) to return to their homeland as things had
changed, and the constitution preserved their Lithuanian citizen****p.
Thus,
Adamkus was a Lithuanian citizen while he worked at the EPA, but also a
"refugee" of the soviet union, in some sense.
While Adamkus ran for President of Lithuania, he still held US
citizen****p.
At this time Lithuania had a much different version of dual citizen****p
than
it does presently. He formally renounced his citizen****p before US
consular
officials before he was allowed to be President.
Now, as I believe it, there is a presidential directive (from Carter, I
believe) allowing US citizens to become citizens of another country,
without
losing their US citizen****p. This is because the US government believes
that
no one would really want to give up their citizen****p, and that sometimes
people are pressured to do so. The directive rules that one must renounce
their citizen****p through a special process in front of a US official.
There
is precedent allowing dual citizen****p of the US. Of course, this could
change at any time, if some "decider" decides it so.
Renunciation of US citizen****p is not something someone can easily do, and
is impossible to do inside the US.
Thanks for the article,
Mike Carey
I guess I should have been thrown out of this country a long time ago, as
I
have never felt any national pride as a result of citizen****p by birth. I
give credit to the immigrant in swearing allegiance to his new-found
country, no matter how misdirected his reasons for emigrating might be. I
don't believe that the gifts of this nation would have been withheld from
me
in any other country I might have chosen to live in, granting those gifts
were available. The nation-state has never been anything but an impediment
to world peace and an equal distribution of wealth and will continue to
prevent the world's citizens from achieving harmony in the future. In
michiu
kaaku's imaginary journey through the universe, he points out numbers of
former planets, now turned to lifeless cinders and claims them to be
planets
that failed to achieve world government. How I feel about dual citizen****p
doesn't seem to be the case here, so much as how I feel about American
citizens becoming political operatives of a foreign country.
This can only end in political advantage moving in one direction and is a
failure to the rest of the population. We must, for every obvious reason
become citizens of the world or the whole thing is doomed to fail.
kitchenrat
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