The Anti-Buchanan
Brigade
September 16, 1999
Everyone is teeing
off on Pat Buchanan again.
This time most of his critics are Republicans: Rush Limbaugh, Bill
Bennett, Cal Thomas, John Podhoretz, William Safire, Charles
Krauthammer. Buchanan has let it be known that he is indeed ready
to leave the Republican Party and hopes to get the presidential
nomination of Ross Perot’s Reform Party.
For Buchanan to join a third party
would be to “declare war on the Republican Party,” in
Limbaugh’s words. Like many conservatives, Rush thinks the
result would probably be to take enough votes from George W. Bush
to elect Al Gore (assuming that Bush and Gore will be the
major-party nominees). Which he thinks is deplorable.
Rush doesn’t believe
Buchanan has a prayer of winning. He argues that he could only be a
spoiler, ensuring another liberal in the White House.
Since he made this argument, Rush
has been inundated with angry e-mail (he calls it “hate
mail”) from Buchanan supporters. But without rancor, he
should be forced to answer a few simple questions:
“At what point, dear Rush,
would you yourself feel compelled to bolt the Republican Party?
Whom would it have to nominate in order for you to say:
‘That’s enough! I’m out of here!’? George
Pataki? Arlen Specter? Wouldn’t your own logic require
conservatives to support any Republican candidate, provided
he’s even a millimeter to the right of his Democratic
opponent?
“You think Bush is a genuine
conservative who deserves the trust of other conservatives. But
that’s a judgment call, and it isn’t shared by everyone.
Are you saying that those who don’t trust Bush should support
him anyway?”
William Safire accuses Buchanan of
pushing the “dual-loyalty canard” that the Israeli lobby
puts Israel’s interests ahead of American interests, thereby
“stimulating anti-Semitism.” Safire too should face
some basic questions.
“Are Israeli interests ever
opposed to American interests? If so, should the Israeli lobby in
America put America’s interests first? But has it ever done
so? Isn’t the very purpose of the lobby — which
comprises most Jewish organizations in this country — to
promote Israel’s interests at the expense, if necessary, of
those of the United States and the American taxpayer? Why is it
‘anti-Semitic’ to point out conflicts between
what’s good for Israel and what’s good for America?
Aren’t those conflicts the very reason an Israeli lobby exists
at all?
“Or are we supposed to
assume that the two countries’ interests are always
identical? How often have you yourself opposed Israeli positions on
grounds that they would be injurious to the United States? Or do you
take the position that this is virtually impossible? Do you think we
should accept growing Arab and Muslim hostility to this country,
instead of cultivating good relations with the Muslim world? Is it in
our interest to provoke terrorism against Americans, at home and
abroad?
“You still resent
Buchanan’s 1991 crack about Israel’s ‘Amen
Corner’ in this country. Do you really deny that there actually
is a body of opinion that meets that description — for example,
those who excoriated the Bush administration for withholding loan
guarantees from Israel? How about those who consider the Israeli
spy Jonathan Pollard a hero or a victim of excessive
punishment?
“In short, what (if any) kind
of criticism of Israel do you deem permissible? At what point could
you bring yourself to say that the U.S.-Israeli alliance is harmful to
the United States? Or is that position, no matter how rational,
taboo?”
All these questions are so obvious
that they should occur to anyone who discusses our relations with
Israel. Yet to raise them is to incur immediate charges of bigotry, as
witness the treatment Buchanan gets. He would get kinder treatment
from pro-Israel journalists if he had sold military secrets to Israel.
But a jab at the “Amen Corner” has earned him the
lasting enmity of — well, the Amen Corner. Their fury itself
confirms his point.
By definition, foreign lobbies are
loyal to foreign governments. If you support Belgian interests at the
sacrifice of American interests, you aren’t practicing
“dual loyalty”; you are loyal to Belgium.
In politics, as Buchanan can attest,
a man may get away with many vices; but his virtues won’t go
unpunished.
Joseph Sobran
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