The neocons AIPAC, its think-tank (the Washington Institute of Near East Policy), and the rest of the usual Israel-can-do-no-wrong crowd is now harping on the question of dual loyalty. Are American Jews being accused of being more loyal to Israel than America?
The "dual loyalty card" is suddenly being played by neocons to argue that those who oppose the lobby are accusing Jews of dual loyalty. Lately they have seized on a remark by some anonymous White House aide who said that Obama aide, Dennis Ross, "seems to be far more sensitive to Netanyahu's coalition politics than to U.S. interests."
The quote sent the neos went into overdrive. Bob Satloff of AIPAC's Washington Institute for Near East Policy wrote a delightful piece denying the dual loyalty charge, saying, in effect, "Dual loyalty to who? We hire Moroccans and Egyptians, not just Israelis. Does that mean we are loyal to those countries?"
It was a dumb piece which led only to a flurry of stories revealing, for those who don't know, that the Washington Institute and Satloff are AIPAC cutouts. For the first time, I told the story about being in the room when the Washington Institute was created by AIPAC.
Anyway, here is Lee Smith of the Tablet, a new (very good) Jewish blog, playing the dual loyalty card for all its worth. And he names names, actually just one: Stephen Walt of Harvard.
According to Smith, Walt is leading the orchestra that is playing that tune. The neos are obsessed with Walt because (and John Mearsheimer) he wrote The Israel Lobby which argued that anyone who criticizes the lobby will be smeared as an anti-Semite and worse til the end of time. Smith, like all the other neos, proves the Walt-Mearsheimer thesis by arguing that, in criticizing the lobby, Walt is even worse than "the rejectionists of Hamas, for they at least have to live with the consequences of their choices." None of the things Smith says are is true but its standard stuff in the Standard.
But the beauty part is that the story about Profesor Walt is filed under the rubric "Agents Of Influence" which is a Washington term for those who quietly promote seamy interests under the guise of objectivity. They are often people you have never heard about who have a hidden agenda and promote it well.
And guess who Smith quotes to sum up his argument: Steve Rosen, that Steve Rosen.
To Stephen Walt, pro-Israel is a bad thing, but to the American people it is a good thing. If he thinks our national interests are not being followed, and that Dennis Ross and WINEP are instruments of a foreign power, then by that measure, the majority of the American people are instruments of a foreign power.
So true, the American people have often demonstrated their support for Dennis Ross and WINEP. Can't argue with that.
Of course the American people was not indicted under the Espionage Act for providing government secrets to Israel while Rosen was.
But the column isn't about Rosen who spent millions to prove that he was not something considerably worse than a mere Agent of Influence. Its about Walt.
And this contradiction doesn't even occur to Smith when he's wriitng his column. No, he is playing the the dual loyalty card and nothing will get in his way.
I guess the neos realize that calling their opponents "anti-semites" and "self-hating Jews" isn't working anymore. So they now accuse them of calling American Jews disloyal.
It won't work. The lobby is reeling, now that there is someone in the White House who thinks that he can deal with the sovereign State of Israel directly -- government to government -- without going through them. You know times are bad when the American Jewish Congress is merging with the American Jewish Committee, or vice versa.
No serious person is calling the lobby disloyal. But ever growing numbers are accusing it, quite rightly, of using thuggish tactics to silence its opponents.
American Jews, at home in America, aren't even paying attention. They are too busy going to work, figuring out how to pay for college, driving the kids to soccer, hanging out with their fellow Americans of all ethnicities (half are even marrying non-Jews) and doing what they can to advance the interests, not of Israel but of the United States and the Democratic party.
Meanwhile, here are Congressmen Anthony Weiner and Jerrold Nadler (big progressives) opposing the two-state solution. This follows Chuck Schumer's quote that God has chosen him to guard Israel's interests in the Senate.
