In Defense of Dual Loyalty
February 18, 2003

by Joe Sobran

     Well, the fur is flying now. The debate about war on 
Iraq often seems to be less about the reasons for and 
against war than about the motives of the debaters 
themselves. The touchiest and most volatile point in the 
debate is the old question of Jewish loyalty, especially 
as regards Israel.

     When the British issued the Balfour Declaration 
calling for a Jewish homeland in Palestine back in 1918, 
the Jewish Lord Montagu wept. He thought it was a tragic 
mistake, because it would call in question the loyalty of 
Diaspora Jews to their native countries. He thought the 
suspicion of "dual loyalty" was inevitable.

     He was right, but he didn't foresee how that 
suspicion would be suppressed in our time. Today the 
charge of dual loyalty is considered disreputable, so 
disreputable that it should never be entertained even as 
a possibility. Writing in the WASHINGTON POST, Lawrence 
Kaplan insinuates that those who suspect Israeli 
loyalists, especially within the Bush administration, of 
pushing for war are -- though he avoids the word -- 
anti-Semites.

     Well, if we're going to argue about this, let's 
start with an obvious question: What's wrong with dual 
loyalties? I love this country in my way, but I love the 
Europe of my ancestors too, and I don't blame Jews whose 
chief loyalty is to their own people. I rather expect it. 
It's called nature. It isn't necessarily sinister. But it 
has to be taken into account.

     "All stereotypes are more or less accurate," writes 
the sociologist John Murray Cuddihy. That doesn't mean 
they are universally true; it means they are broadly 
true, even if there are exceptions. Just because an 
ethnic generalization isn't always true doesn't mean it's 
never true.

     Politicians, who don't traffic in subtle nuances, 
know this. Crude stereotypes, usually implicit, serve 
them well. New York politicians, bidding for the Jewish 
vote, assume what they won't say outright: that the best 
way to get Jewish votes is to call for all-out U.S. 
support for Israel. That is, they assume that most Jews' 
first loyalty today is to Israel. And nobody accuses them 
of anti-Semitism for assuming this.

     What's more, it gets them elected. Ladies and 
gentlemen, I give you Robert Wagner, Jacob Javits, John 
Lindsay, Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Al D'Amato, Ed Koch, 
Rudy Giuliani, Charles Schumer, Hillary Clinton ... 
Nobody ever lost a New York election by being too pro-
Israel. Never.

     It's unfair to blame the Jews for doing what most of 
us do. But it's absurd to pretend that they don't do it. 
Are we really supposed to believe that the Jewish-
Zionist-Likudnik hawks around President Bush -- the 
Perle-Wolfowitz-Feith-JINSA crowd -- would be so eager 
for war if they thought Iraq was Israel's friend? Please. 
And most of the big Jewish organizations want the United 
States to fight Israel's enemies. Naturally! We aren't 
supposed to notice?

     Read the Jewish press. How often do you find its 
writers saying, "Well, this war might be good for Israel, 
but it would be bad for America, and after all, we are 
American citizens first!"? Almost unimaginable. Actually, 
dual loyalty would be an improvement. It would mean 
putting American interests ahead of Israeli interests 
every once in a while.

     For all that, the Jewish hawks may be right. It's 
possible that American and Israeli interests coincide now 
and then. But how likely is it that those interests are 
always identical? That there is no tension at all between 
loyalty to both countries?

     At the moment there is certainly tension between my 
American and European loyalties, and you may say, if you 
like, that I'm with Europe. The millions of peace 
marchers who turned out last weekend spoke for me. They 
were the voice of European civilization; and when America 
threatens Europe's peace, I see no reason to side with 
America.

     But I also see no reason to hide my loyalties. I'm 
proud of Europe, especially now. I'm sometimes ashamed of 
America, especially now. I just think Israel-first Jews 
ought to be equally frank. Let's all declare our 
interests.

     I don't think this war will really be good for 
America. I'm not even sure it will be good for Israel. 
But as the Godfather asks, with a fine sense of 
relevance, "What is the interest for me and my family?" 
My family, in this case, is not only America, but Europe. 
And Europe wants peace.

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