Reply #2: Think of being pro-Israel as the equivalent of being pro-American

[IndianaGreen]

I'm a pro-Israel Jew, who has visited Israel 50 times in 40 years. But I am, like 99.9% of American Jews, first an American.

The idea that the anti-Freeman crowd is running all over town demanding that anyone not close to Israel be banned from working in an American intelligence agency leaves me nauseated.

How dare they? It has taken 20 years to get over the Pollard spy scandal. Good Jewish American kids cannot get jobs in various US government agencies because some people who provide (or withhold) clearances think that American Jews have divided loyalties.

We don't. But crusades like this, not surprisingly, leave the impression that we do.

This isn't about Freeman.

It is about a group that has decided to go after him to warn the administration that only friends of the lobby are acceptable appointees. It is about a group that is so oblivious to Jewish history that it believes it can recklessly put their interests in Israel above everything else and not expect to build strong resentment in Washington (it was strong enough, even before this).

How dare they? My children are first generation (their mom, my wife, was born in a Displaced Persons camp in Germany after her parents survived the Holocaust). We love this country and will be damned if we allow anyone to convey the impression that we take it for granted.

For us, this is the "goldeneh medina" (the golden land), the best homeland Jews ever had. How dare they imply that for us it's only second best.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mj-rosenberg/the-crusade-to-defeat-oba_b_172417.html

Pro-American. We know who they are. They are the uber-nationalists, flag-waiving, 'Support the Troops' magnetic ribbon crowd. They are the ones that cheered as our troops invaded Iraq. They are the ones that furiously attacked anyone questioning the government's rationale for the war.

What has Iraq done to our country? It has bankrupted our nation. It has left us a legacy of wounded and emotionally damaged veterans. It has filled our cemeteries with the graves of men and women too young to be dead.

A reasonable argument can be made that those that fit the above description of 'Pro-American' were enablers of the destruction of America, for they supported policies and politicians that led to our debacle in Iraq. The sensible conclusion being that those that opposed the war in Iraq were the true pro-Americans for they foresaw the harm that such a war of aggression would cause to Iraqi society, its people, and to our own people.

Now replace the label 'Pro-American' with the "Pro-Israel' label, and you can draw a similar analogy that those that most fiercely defend Israel's policies and governments are indeed enabling the destruction of Israel, while those that call for a return of the pre-1967 borders and for justice for Palestinians are the true 'Pro-Israel' advocates.